Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 02/11/2008 - 02:04.
While at a Feb. 5 Havana screening of a documentary on his youth,
popular Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez criticized regulations that keep
Cubans from staying in Cuban hotels reserved for tourists. "I belong to
a generation that when we had 30 pesos in our pockets, we could stay in
any hotel," he said. Rodriguez also criticized the requirement for
Cubans to get special permission to travel out of the country. These and
similar criticisms have become common since July 2007, when acting
president Raul Castro called for a reform of the system; in September
and October people participated in a series of meetings in which they
were encouraged to voice criticisms.
In a Jan. 19 meeting with National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcón,
Information Sciences University students complained about Internet
access, which is lower in Cuba than in Haiti, the poorest country in the
hemisphere. Raul Castro himself told the National Assembly in December
that there was an "excess of prohibitions and legal measures, which do
more harm than good." (La Jornada, Mexico, Feb. 7; Reuters, Feb. 8 via
CaribbeanNews.com)
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