In a country of limits, it is the restriction that many Cubans hate the most: the exit visa that the government requires for travel abroad, discouraging all but the favored or fortunate from leaving the island.
Now that bureaucratic barrier is on its way out. The Cuban government announced on Tuesday that it would terminate the exit visa requirement by Jan. 14, possibly letting many more Cubans depart for vacations, or forever, with only a passport and a visa from the country where they plan to go.
The new policy — promised by President Raúl Castro last year, and finally announced in the Communist Party newspaper — represents the latest significant step by the Cuban government to answer demands for change from Cubans, without relinquishing control.
Plenty of progressives over the decades have wished for the United States to "soften" its position towards communist Cuba. This is because so many of the doddering old Reds were imprinted by El Jefe during their youth, invested so much hope in Che and Fidel and the communist dictatorship as a slap at the establishment/their parents/the system/etc. Now they can't bear to think that they will die unvindicated by history. Since the 80s, as European communism disappeared, and Chinese communism shifted gears, North Korean and Cuban communism became more merciless, although you'd never have known about Cuba, to read most news outlets. So, if a progg you know starts sighing over when will the U.S. ever "soften" its stance towards Cuba--or "the Cuban people" as he or she will likely put it--just ask in return: When will Cuba soften its position towards Cuba?
