Feb 2, 2012

Cuban Dissident Feels Let Down by Dilma

Brazil News

| HAVANA – Yoani Sanchez, Cuban dissident and blogger, said she was very “disappointed” with the attitude of the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff. “It was a shame, a missed opportunity,” Yoani, blogger and editor of Generation Y, told Agencia Estado in a telephone interview from Havana. “It would have been a good time for a diplomatic gesture of solidarity with the citizens, not only with the government,” said the dissident.

Cuban cyber-dissident and blogger Yoani Sanchez

Yoani Sanchez (Photo: cubanet.org)

Yoani said last week that she had been inspired by the story of the Brazilian president after having seen images of the young rebel, Dilma Rousseff, appearing before the Rio de Janeiro Military Court of Justice in 1972. Dilma was imprisoned and tortured by the Military dictatorship that held power in Brazil at the time.

It seems Dilma was equally inspired by the Cuban revolution and Castro regime. She requested and was granted an audience with the former dictator Fidel Castro during her visit to Cuba this week.

In the telephone interview, Yoani said that she will learn tomorrow if she will be granted permission by the Cuban regime to visit Brazil. She doesn't hold out much hope, though. She says she has applied 18 times over the years for the travel documents that Cuba requires of its citizens to leave the island. “If the answer is go, it will be nice. But of course I'm not expecting to go into exile. I want to visit Brazil and come back.”

Yoani lamented in the interview that, in the end, the “skeptics? had their expectations confirmed. They said that I should not harbor any illusions that Dilma would bring up such a sensitive and difficult issue.”

The cyber-dissident defined as “absurd” the ritual experienced by Cubans who want to travel abroad. “You have to ask permission to leave and enter – Cuba is the only Western country where this happens.” And the authorities still require “a carta blanca to get on a plane, even with a valid passport and visa.”

Yoani added via twitter today, that the word on the streets of Havana is that “Dilma came to Cuba with wallet open eyes closed.”

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Source(s) for this article: Agencia Estdao

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