Cuba Gives Yoani Sanchez Red Light

HAVANA TIMES, March 4 — Famous Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez was once again denied permission to leave Cuba to attend an international event, claims her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, also a blogger.

IPS reported that Sanchez was to attend the Fifth International Congress of the Spanish Language in Chile scheduled to take place in Valparaiso from March 2-5, but cancelled due to the powerful earthquake that hit Chile on February 27.

The conference will still be held online with “presentations and lectures that the 200 participants had planned to give at the Federico Santa María Technical University, under the banner of “America in the Spanish language.”

Cubans must receive an exit permit from their government in order to travel outside the country.  The longstanding measure is repudiated by large segments of the population, including many supporters of the Cuban revolution.