Passport

Yoani Sánchez (to the left, in white shirt and long hair) arriving in Brazil. Supporters and detractors walk with her at the airport (from El Informador).

In October last year, the Cuban government announced an Immigration and Tourism reform. Since January 2013 Cubans would be able to travel abroad just with their passports, no longer requiring the so-called “exit visa”, a permit that allowed them to leave the country. Despite the enthusiasm that the relaxation of immigration measures initially provoked, Cubans were quick to notice that it did not mean that they could leave and return to the country as they pleased.  The government still retains control of migratory flows by deciding who will receive a passport.

Yoani Sánchez applied for this document, received it, and is now in a world tour. She is the acknowledged writer of the Generación Y blog (English version: http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/). Its title makes reference to the fad during the 70s, whose reason remains obscure for many Cubans, to include a y in the names of their newborns: Yoandris, Yowlys, Oreydi, Yunior, Robeisy, Yurileidys, etc. Apparently, the government promoted this to demonstrate that the island was different by making its own Socialist way in the Americas. Sánchez dedicates her blog to people who bear a y in their names, and that saw their childhood marked by lots of rural schools, Russian cartoons, and illegal immigration.

It is tempting to try to uncover the motivations that led the Cuban government to issue the passport to Sánchez. After living in Switzerland for  couple of years, she returned to Cuba in 2002 and did not leave the country until this week, when she began her tour. With it, she is accepting invitations from diverse organizations who are interested in her blog, where she posts vignettes illustrating the control of the government over the economy, the diverse constraints to all kinds of freedom, or how people try to overcome the difficulties of scarcity. Her first stop was Brazil; next, she will go to Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the U.S.

Otherwise said, she is popular within the circle of media activists for democracy and human rights. It would be surprising that the Cuban government did not know this in advance. But the Cuban government also knows that, maybe even without trying, it can find supporters in many places of the world. For instance, just after going through customs in the airport in Brazil, a group of people confronted Yoani Sánchez by yelling that she was a CIA agent trying to depose the Cuban government with anti-Castro posts on her blog. She responded that she was glad to be in a democratic country where people could just speak their mind without a policeman interrogating them afterwards. Later that night, a group of pro-Cuba activists boycotted a film premiere she was scheduled to attend. Thus, the goal would be to create doubts about her image. Or maybe it was just the Cuban government trying to release some pressure against itself, by allowing a political opponent to leave the country for some months. If there was any particular intention in the Cuban authorities by issuing Sánchez a passport, perhaps future stops of her tour will offer more clues to it.