{{Ana Liliam Garcia has never left Cuba but she hopes that will soon change, excitedly talking of her desire to meet her many relatives in Florida, and perhaps even Mickey Mouse.}}
The raven-haired 16-year-old is eagerly awaiting a new law taking effect Monday that will let the vast majority of Cubans travel abroad for the first time in 50 years.
The overhaul of Cuba’s decades-old migratory law, announced three months ago, is perhaps the most highly anticipated of a series of reforms initiated under President Raul Castro.
It eliminates the hated “white card” exit visa that Cuba long forced its citizens to apply for before they could leave the island, something that led opponents to refer to the communist-run country as an “island prison.”
“My cousins and my uncles, they’re all in Miami,” Garcia said in Havana. “I would like to see Disneyland in the United States. I’ll be able to travel!”
While the law has ignited dreams of travel, observers predict it will result in only a modest initial increase in trips by Cubans, who must still get visas from the destination countries, including the United States.
And critics note that the law includes a “national security” clause that could be used to bar exits by government opponents, skilled workers and those privy to sensitive information.
But if applied evenhandedly, the opening would eliminate one of the biggest human rights criticisms leveled against Cuba: that the state decides who can and who cannot leave the country.
AP
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