Remember the news stories from back in March announcing that the Cuban refugees mistakenly sent back to Cuba had been issued visas? Remember how the stories said they would soon be returning to the United States to start new lives? The stories were wrong because acquiring those visas was only one part of the excruciating process of leaving Cuba. They received U.S. entry visas. They also have to have “white cards”, Cuban exit permits. If they get the exit permits, then another one of fidel’s torturous waiting games will begin. How many times will they be told that tomorrow you are leaving, be at the airport at a certain time, only to be told at the last minute that there’s a problem with the paper work, or that it’s a mistake. Imagine that life in limbo– in Cuba, as soon as you receive a U.S. visa, you’re on the list; you are persona non grata, a “gusano“. It’s just one more way the tyrant causes Cuban suffering.
For those of you who still think Cuba’s a paradise, ask yourself this; if it’s so great in Cuba, why aren’t Cubans allowed to freely travel? If it’s so great in Cuba, why does castro control all information on the island?
HAVANA – One of 15 Cuban migrants sent home after reaching an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys said Wednesday the group is growing desperate after three months awaiting final Cuban government approval to leave for good.
The migrants were returned to Cuba in January. But a deal allowing 14 of them to emigrate permanently was reached in March between U.S. District Judge Frederic Moreno in Miami and the U.S. government, which had argued that the U.S. Coast Guard acted correctly in sending the Cubans back. Now all they lack is the so-called “white card,” an exit permit Cubans must receive from the communist government to leave the island.
“All of us are desperate, they haven’t answered us,” Elizabeth Hernandez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from a small town in Matanzas Province nearly 100 miles east of Havana.
With luck, castro may let them eventually leave, that is if they are able to endure the wait because as soon as they got that U.S. visa they were forced to quit their jobs.
YahooNews.