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A comment on Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-government protests. Parent comment

Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by alentist on Monday July 12, 2021 @03:00PM (#27813742)
> Cuba is not stopping anyone from leaving

That's a step in the right direction, if true. Do you have a source for it? This older article [0] says:

President Raul Castro said the regime will still decide who can renew or obtain passports. The government will protect "human capital" in its decision-making, and travel can be denied for "national security reasons."

Those deemed necessary to the Cuba socialist revolution — professionals such as doctors, scientists and engineers — can be prevented from departing. The "national security" clause worries some opposition figures.

[0] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/11/cuba-ex...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by sudosysgen on Monday July 12, 2021 @03:24PM (#27813967)
Yes, that is it. It is certainly not perfect yet, but controls on who can obtain passports are sadly the norm in the entire world. And indeed the price of the plane ticket stays the most significant hurdle.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by alentist on Monday July 12, 2021 @05:20PM (#27815278)
> It is certainly not perfect

That's an understatement.

> controls on who can obtain passports are sadly the norm in the entire world

These restrictions are far from "the norm in the entire world".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by sudosysgen on Monday July 12, 2021 @06:43PM (#27815968)
Actually, not granting passports to people that are in dire need economically is fairly common, South Korea does it for example and so do a few African countries. Crucially it's not as bad as the previous system because you know of this complication before you make the choice of studying for these professions. It really sucks, but sadly it's more common than it should be.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by alentist on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @01:31AM (#27817865)
> fairly common, South Korea does it for example and so do a few African countries

Source? To prevent goalpost-moving, the restrictions we're referring to are:

The government will protect "human capital" in its decision-making, and travel can be denied for "national security reasons." Those deemed necessary to the Cuba socialist revolution — professionals such as doctors, scientists and engineers — can be prevented from departing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by toomuchtodo on Monday July 12, 2021 @03:11PM (#27813835)
It also appears that a Cuban passport is ~5 months of salary for a Cuban, which is a limiting factor in expatriating. I would be curious what a crowdsourced effort to fund passports and travel out of Cuba does to the government's posture and position on Cuban's leaving the country.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by sudosysgen on Monday July 12, 2021 @03:21PM (#27813923)
It would probably end similar to the Mariel Boatlift : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Internet outages in Cuba following widespread anti-govern... by toomuchtodo on Monday July 12, 2021 @03:24PM (#27813955)
TIL, thanks for the link.
[ Parent | on HN ]