Surprise, surprise. According to the AP and Agence France-Presse, Cuban authorities have denied (or strategically “postponed review”) Yoani Sanchez a visa to leave the country, rendering her unable to collect the esteemed Ortega y Gasset prize given by El Pais. The award ceremony is taking place later today.
Yoani’s comments thus far: “I think the message is that bad children are not allowed to leave home.”
She’s right. Only the (c)astro clan can freely travel back and forth to Spain where they run restaurants and antique stores. They need the money to pay for el viejo’s medical bills. Yoani, like Biscet, will have to remain captive in the island prison as they are lauded in absentia.
Will this garner as much attention as the recent availability of computers? I’ll put $50 on NO – and I’ll do a very sophisticated analysis of Google News article counts to see if I’m right tomorrow. In the meantime, do me a favor and tell at least one person about this today. Bring your copy of Time magazine with you if you like to use props 🙂
2 thoughts on “Surprise! Yoani can’t get visa to collect journalism prize”
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No! Can’t be! Why, the MSM breathlessly announced just a few weeks ago that Raul-the-reformer was going to lift travel restrictions for all Cubans!
Come on Monica, it’s for her own safety. Remember what Alarcon said earlier in the year about the dangers of having all those airplanes in the sky if Cuba allowed its citizens to travel freely? This is Fidel and Raul’s fatherly side coming out. They want to take good care of Yoani with their state-of-the-art health care facilities and wonderful non-indoctrinating education.
[total and utter sarcasm]
-AB