Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said that the Cuban government has unblocked access to her blog, which had been off limits on the island's Internet since 2008.
In a posting on Twitter, she wondered how long Cuban Internet users would be able to view her Generation Y blog but exulted in the opening, however brief: In the long night of censorship, a small hole has opened. My blog Generation Y returns
to the insular light.
Her blog criticizes the Cuban system and the difficulties of daily life on the communist-led island.
Sanchez has won a number of international prizes and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2008. Her blog is translated into 15 languages and she has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter.
The unblocking came as Cuba hosted an international computer science conference.
Update: Banned from Travel
11th January 2012. See article
from guardian.co.uk
The dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, famed for her outspoken online critiques of the country's communist regime, has issued an appeal to Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, to help her leave Cuba.
Sanchez, a Havana-based writer who has been accused by Cuban authorities of conducting a cyberwar against the government, has not been able to leave the country since 2004 because of migration rules that require Cubans to receive government permission
to travel.
She has now been invited to the Brazilian state of Bahia in February for the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba and Honduras in which she features.
In the video appeal to Rousseff, posted on YouTube, Sa'nchez called on Brazil's first female president to intervene:
Please help me, who says it is her 19th attempt to get travel permission from Cuban authorities. Through this small video I want to send a very respectful [and] very humble message ... to the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.
Unfortunately I am forbidden from leaving my own country -- I have not committed any crime.
Update: Travel Ban Repeated
13th February 2012. See article
from amnesty.org
The Cuban government must reform an arbitrary exit permit scheme that affects all Cubans and is used to punish freedom of expression, Amnesty International said after a prominent blogger was again blocked from travelling abroad.
On Friday, Cuba's migration authorities denied blogger and activist Yoani Sa'nchez an exit permit (white card or tarjeta blanca) for the 19th time in four years. As on previous occasions, no reason was given for the decision.
The well-known author of Generacion Y had been invited to speak at the premiere screening in Brazil's Bahi'a state on 10 February of a documentary on freedom of expression in Cuba and Honduras. Brazil had already issued her a visa to enter the country.
The Cuban government's repeated denial of exit permits to critics like Yoani Sa'nchez can only be seen as retaliation for the expression of their legitimate political views and activism, said Javier Zuniga, Special Advisor to Amnesty International:
Those fighting for freedom of expression, association, and movement must be authorized to leave and re-enter the country without arbitrary restrictions, and the Cuban authorities must end other tactics used to clamp down on peaceful dissent.
