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Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Fearful “Blacklist” of the Highest Cuban Authority

The Fearful "Blacklist" of the Highest Cuban Authority / Miguel Iturria
Savon
Miguel Iturria Savon, Translator: mlk

A week before I presented for the first time my Petition for Foreign
Travel in the territorial Office of Immigration and Aliens of
Guanabacoa, northeast of Havana, a young official from the State
Security went to interrogate my younger son in the National
Neurosciences Center, where he works as an investigator. The alleged
negotiator wanted to know if I intended to travel with my wife to Spain
on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purpose of "promoting my case."

June 12, three months after such humiliating request and receiving on
five occasions the answer: "Refused, you appear on the list of those who
cannot travel abroad" — I again presented myself at the immigration
office with a document in which I demanded an explanation for such
prohibition. That day, the same official who interrogated my younger son
at the Neurosciences Center, flew on his Suzuki motorcycle to the home
of my older son who lives in El Cotorro and works as a lawyer for the
municipal collective office. On that occasion, he tried to explore my
possible actions and promised "to expedite the exit."

At the beginning of November I still have not received an answer to my
claim from Major Gricet Alleguis, Chief of the Territorial Office of
Immigration in Guanabacoa, nor fromLieutenant Colonel Dania Gonzalez
Rodriguez, to whom I delivered a copy of my claim at the National
Directorate of Immigration and Aliens, located at 22 and 3ra, Miramar,
Havana. Latal Dania advised me that they reserve "the right to give no
explanation. . ."

Between June and October, I believe in August, a young official
nicknamed Simon knocked at the door of my apartment in downtown Havana,
with a citation for an "exploratory contact" with the first operational
officer against independent journalism. After the brief and respectful
"contact," achieved at the Police Station located on Dragons Street, Old
Havana township, it was clear that I would not leave Cuban if I did not
present the petition for "Permanent Exit from the country" instead of
the "Permit to Travel Abroad." The said Simon was a "facilitator" and
even gave me his telephone number so that I or one of my sons could
communicate to him the beginning of the new process.

Last October 2, I presented the said "Permanent Exit" at the Office of
Immigration and Aliens at 17 and K, Vedado, in spite of the expiration
of my family reunification visa issued in March by the Spanish Consulate
in Havana,which was kind enough to grant me a new visa in less than a
month. On presenting myself with the visa on the first of November, an
employee repeated to me the film's chorus: "Refused, you appear on the
list of those who cannot travel abroad."

What list is that? Under what law is it issued? Why does the Castro
regime cling to protecting the life of individuals, refusing them the
right of free movement, choosing where to live and leave or enter any
country, including their own?

I suppose that the Immigration and Alien Unit of Plaza will know how to
answer my questions Wednesday the 7th of November at 1 pm. Otherwise I
will begin to fight for my freedom in the streets of Havana. Maybe the
game of the foreman against the runaway slave will advance or they will
put me in stocks in order to comply with the blacklist of the excluded
ones, those daring ones who raise their voices personally and try to
leave the herd.

Translated by mlk

November 4 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/the-fearful-blacklist-of-the-highest-cuban-authority-miguel-iturria-savon/

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