{"id":4057,"date":"2019-12-06T16:47:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T16:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=4057"},"modified":"2019-12-06T16:47:44","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T16:47:44","slug":"grounded-cubans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/12\/06\/grounded-cubans\/","title":{"rendered":"Grounded Cubans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although Cuba lifted restrictions for citizens to leave the country in January 2014, the Caribbean nation continues to prevent independent journalists, civil activists, and political opponents from traveling abroad. This violates freedom of movement and expression, Katherine Mojena Hern\u00e1ndez, coordinator of the Cuban nongovernmental organization (NGO) Uni\u00f3n Patri\u00f3tica, told Di\u00e1logo.<\/em> The NGO advocates for the rights and liberties of the Cuban people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMigratory regulation is a common tool the regime uses to restrict public criticism that bothers them,\u201d said Mojena. \u201cThere\u2019s a political police on the island [part of the State Security Department] that\u2019s above the law and all institutions. They are the ones who decide not only who can leave the country, but also who can enter, based on their illegal and repressive criteria.\u201d As such, authorities label some citizens as \u201cregulated,\u201d or grounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not allowed to leave Cuba because I think differently from the government, and I voice my disagreement,\u201d Rosal\u00eda Vi\u00f1as, a board member of Convivencia, a think tank and NGO based in Havana, told Di\u00e1logo<\/em>. \u201cThis is the fourth time authorities prohibited me from travelling to Sweden to take part in an event about the internet and governance, because I show up as being grounded in the National Unified Information System.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Patmos Institute, a Cuban NGO that monitors and advocates for human rights and religious freedom, showed a list of grounded citizens in September 2019, where Vi\u00f1as and Mojena appear along with almost 200 human rights activists who are barred from leaving the country to take part in events, forums, and workshops that don\u2019t align with the Cuban regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruno Rodr\u00edguez, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, told U.S. news agency the Associated Press <\/em>that he didn\u2019t know the reasons behind banning travel for certain citizens. \u201cThat would have to be analyzed case by case. Cuban migratory regulations are similar to those of any country and modern migratory policy that sets laws restricting the exit from the country of people who know classified information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe minister [Rodr\u00edguez] was forced to lie, as usual. It was the best answer he could find to justify the unjustifiable,\u201d Mojena said. \u201cWhen they are asked why, they always say they don\u2019t know and repeat only what the immigration system says.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the documentary series The Grounded<\/em> (Los Regulados), created by independent audiovisual magazine ADV<\/em>, journalist Osmel Ram\u00edrez \u00c1lvarez from Diario de Cuba <\/em>and Havana Times<\/em> says that the regime has offered to change his status in exchange for his signed and recorded pledge not to oppose the government. As of October 10, 2019, Ram\u00edrez had been grounded for 700 days. \u201cIt\u2019s a method commonly used by the repressive Cuban apparatus to punish political opponents, civil society activists, and independent journalists. The island becomes an open-air prison, where the \u2018convicted\u2019 individuals don\u2019t know when they will be freed,\u201d the documentary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mojena and Vi\u00f1as agree that the surge of arbitrary restrictions occurred because the government thought that most opponents would flee the country at the earliest opportunity after the new immigration law was passed in January 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo help eliminate this migratory regulation, we must use every chance to report how the Cuban regime violates Article 13 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: \u2018Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,\u2019\u201d Mojena said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other suspended rights, grounded citizens cannot request or renew their passport, and authorities restrict their movement with arrests, threats, kidnapping, and deportation to their provinces of origin, as if they were undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the last time I was denied the possibility to leave the country, I feel stronger and more determined to work for a free, democratic, and pluralistic Cuba. It\u2019s hard right now, but this struggle gives me strength to defend my thoughts and beliefs and to demand my right to travel freely, despite the government\u2019s repeated violations of its own migratory law,\u201d Vi\u00f1as concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although Cuba lifted restrictions for citizens to leave the country in January 2014, the Caribbean nation continues to prevent independent journalists, civil activists, and political opponents from traveling abroad. This violates freedom of movement and expression, Katherine Mojena Hern\u00e1ndez, coordinator of the Cuban nongovernmental organization (NGO) Uni\u00f3n Patri\u00f3tica, told Di\u00e1logo. The NGO advocates for the rights and liberties of the Cuban people…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4058,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions\/4058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}