CUBAN architect Felix Borges, who last left the Caribbean island in 1989 to visit Angola, is among a wave of prospective tourists seeking to go abroad as President Raul Castro begins easing travel rules on the communist island.
As of Monday, Mr Borges and other Cuban citizens no longer needed exit visas or invitations from a resident of a foreign country in order to travel, a rule that kept many from leaving the island for decades. The policy shift comes as Mr Castro takes more steps to open up the economy as part of the biggest overhaul since the 1959 revolution led by his brother Fidel.
''They'll have normal rules where people can leave and come back,'' said Philip Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia. ''People can go abroad to get a degree and come back, or work and send money back. It's going to have an economic benefit.''
While lifting travel restrictions may cause more Cubans to flee the island for good, Mr Castro is betting that most will return and help rebuild the nation's economy, Mr Peters said. Yet in a country where the average monthly salary is $A18, even buying a plane ticket will be beyond the reach of most of the 11 million residents.Advertisement
''Tickets are too expensive even for professionals, who just scrape by,'' Mr Borges said.
Not everyone will be allowed to take advantage of the new rules, which also enable Cubans to stay abroad for two years, up from 11 months. The Castro government, in announcing the changes last October, said it can prevent Cubans from leaving for security reasons and ''to preserve the human capital created by the revolution''.
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