Via NYT’s The Lede, President Obama has directly addressed questions posed by courageous Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who was recently harassed and roughed up by Cuban security officials for the great crime of blogging.
The [HRW] report notes that denying outspoken critics of the government permission to travel abroad is a common tactic. In addition to keeping Ms. Sánchez from going to both Spain and the United States to accept journalism awards, the report notes that last year “the rapper Bian Oscar Rodríguez Galá — a member of the group los Aldeanos (the Villagers), whose lyrics have been overtly critical of the Castro government — was denied permission to leave Cuba for the second consecutive year to participate in an annual international music competition. Rodríguez, who had qualified by winning a rap competition in Cuba, was refused an exit visa despite having provided all of the required documents.”
Comments are closed.