HAVANA - Cuba will scrap broad travel
restrictions starting in January, easing most Cubans' exit and
return, state media said on Tuesday in the communist island's
first major immigration reform in half a century.
The Cuban government imposed restrictions on travel starting
in 1961 to try to stop a mass migration of people fleeing after
the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
The government will lift the much reviled requirements to
obtain an exit visa and letter of invitation and allow Cubans to
simply show a passport and a visa from the country they're
traveling to if needed, Communist Party newspaper Granma said.
The changes are part of work "to update the current
migratory policy adjusting it to prevailing conditions in the
present and foreseeable future," the paper said.