Chilean Lawmakers Ask Cuba to Allow Dissident’s Daughter to Travel

HAVANA TIMES —Chilean parliamentarians on Monday asked the Cuban government to allow Rosa Maria Paya (daughter of the late opposition leader Oswaldo Paya) to travel to their country, reports the La Tercera newspaper.

Senator Ignacio Walker and Deputy Jorge Burgos — both members of the center-right Renovacion Nacional party — deposited their letter of request in the mailbox of the Cuban embassy in Chile because Cuban officials refused to receive them, according to a local newspaper.

“We hope that the words expressed last year by Cuban President Raul Castro — when he spoke of efforts being made to promote the departure and entry of Cubans — weren’t only rhetoric void of content, but a reality,” said Walker.

According to the Cubaencuentro website, last week the Cuban government refused the dissident’s daughter permission to leave the country to attend “a course at a Chilean university” where she was invited from January 8-15, 2013.