It’s always struck me as unfair that US citizens aren’t permitted to travel to Cuba, though of course many do. But it keeps things in perspective a bit when I remember that the vast majority of Cuban citizens aren’t allowed by their government to travel anywhere outside of Cuba.
A video recently surfaced of some Cuban university students challenging Ricardo Alarcon, the president of Cuba’s National Assembly, over travel restrictions and the country’s economic plan.
At one point in the video, a university student named Eliecer Avila asks Alarcon, “”Why don’t the Cuban people have the real possibility to stay at hotels or travel to different places around the world?”
Alarcon offers this risible response: “[I]f everybody in the world, all six billion inhabitants, were able to travel wherever they pleased, there would be a tremendous traffic jam in our planet’s airspace. People who travel are really a minority.”
The student also asked Alarcon to detail the country’s economic plan, and expressed concerns about the “convertible peso, ” which makes goods 25 times more expensive for Cubans, who are paid in a less valuable currency. “That means a worker has to work two or three days to buy a toothbrush,” the student said.
This sort of public challenge of authority is incredibly rare in Cuba, but the students were actually given a forum by Raul Castro, who has encouraged citizens to voice their concerns without fear of reprisal.
Let’s hope this, along with the upcoming election on February 24, is the beginning of a freer Cuba.
