Castro says Cuban travel to be 'more flexible'

HAVANA: President Raul Castro has said progress is being made in the government's push to relax travel restrictions for Cubans and make them "more flexible," one of the most popular aspects of a recent reform drive.

In remarks to parliament late Monday, quoted by state media, Castro closed a twice-yearly session with lawmakers by discussing the implementation of a raft of reforms, including allowing small private businesses to operate in the communist country.

But for many residents of the one-party island, the issue of travel freedom is among the most dear.

State media did not specify whether the 80-year-old leader's comments meant lifting obstacles on Cuban expats who want to return to visit their homeland or, in what would be a crucial move, allowing Cubans to leave the island to travel abroad without need of a restrictive exit visa policy.

Some two million Cubans and their descendants live abroad -- mainly in the United States -- and require permission from Cuban authorities to visit.

"Today the overwhelming majority of Cuban immigrants leave for economic reasons, and almost all of them keep their love for family and their country," Castro said, in comments in contrast to official statements of recent decades that harshly criticized those who left the island.

The government, he insisted, "is making advances with the reform" on travel.

Castro however lashed out at what he called slow progress in his plans to rejuvenate the island's stagnant economy, which had prompted the eliminatation of a million public sector jobs and create new jobs by allowing small private business to operate legally.

The "biggest hurdle," the leader cautioned, is a "psychological barrier formed by inertia, inaction," from sections of his long-ruling Communist Party resistant to even a modicum of free market

"Bureaucratic resistance is useless" in the face of reform, he warned, in remarks televised on Cuban television.

In remarks made a day after the fifth anniversary of taking the top job from his ailing brother, revolutionary icon Fidel, more than 600 deputies convened to hear Castro. Members of parliament have been meeting behind closed doors since Thursday to review the state of the nation.

Poor economic results, poor planning, and bureaucratic disarray have dominated the discussions, according to Cuban press reports.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011