Migration reform: not quite yet

Notwithstanding the rumors about lineamiento #264, Raul Castro did not use last Friday’s speech to announce reform of Cuban migration policies to allow Cubans to travel abroad without government permission. The policies will be updated, he said, but it’s going to take some time.

He chided those who speak “as if it were about something insignificant and not the destiny of the Revolution and country” (AIN). His speech is here on YouTube.

Part of his discussion of the issue: “Following the authorization of sales of cars and houses, more than a few people consider it urgent to have a new immigration policy, forgetting the exceptional circumstances in which Cuba lives, under the siege entailed in the United States policy of interference and subversion, always on the lookout for any opportunity to achieve its well-known aims.”