The leader of the protest group Ladies in White, Berta Soler.
DPA/Havana
Berta Soler, the leader of the Cuban dissident group Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), received a passport yesterday that will allow her to leave the Communist island when she wishes.
Soler, 49, got the document at an office in her neighbourhood, Alamar, on the outskirts of Havana. She had applied for it on January 18. “I did not ask anything and they did not say anything,” Soler said of her encounter with the authorities.
The government of Cuban President Raul Castro did away with the historic requirement of an exit permit in an immigration reform that went into effect last month. Now, Cubans need only a valid passport to leave the Communist island, along with whatever entry visas they need for their destination.
Several dissident leaders have been denied a passport. Among them is Soler’s husband Angel Moya Acosta, who was denied the document because he has a criminal record. Moya Acosta left jail years ago, but remains on probation.
Soler said she plans to travel abroad soon and holds the “hope” to be able to collect in Strasbourg the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which the European Parliament granted to the Ladies in White in 2005.
She said she has received invitations to travel to Spain, Germany and Panama, so she intends to apply for visas soon.