Leaving Cuba

According the Melbourne Herald-Sun, Celia Guevara, Havana-based veterinarian and daughter of photogenic thug Che, was recently granted an Argentinian passport. Sources told the Buenos Aires daily Clarin that though Guevara "has no plans to leave Cuba," she wants her sons to be able to travel freely, a privilege still reserved for the revolutionary elite. For most Cubans, taking a holiday in South Florida is, of course, rather more difficult, as evidenced by Yaditza Lopez's recent efforts to go out on a date with her Internet boyfriend, Mr. Alex Menendez of Miami. The Miami Herald explains:

Menendez, who first saw Lopez's photo on a website called Friends, started chatting with her online and sent her a photo of himself in May 2006. At the time, Lopez was attending a computer programming college in Havana.

As the couple kept communicating, Menendez told Lopez it would be nice if she came to Miami. When he got a call from her about 7 a.m. Friday, he was pleasantly shocked. ''I might marry her,'' he said.

The 22-year-old Lopez had arrived before dawn as part of a contingent of 52 Cuban migrants, including men, women and several young children. They were wet and sunburned but happy to be in South Florida. They said they had been at sea for three days and came from all over the island.

Oddly, the 52 defectors traveling with Lopez eschewed free health care (that's right, it's free in Cuba!) and Fidel Castro's 81st birthday party for an opulent cruise across the Florida Straits. Ungrateful, the lot of them. 

Incidentally, Guevara, should she decide to leave her Cuba, would hardly be the first offspring of the revolution to do so. Fidel Castro's sister Juanita lives in Miami, where, until last year, she operated the Mini-Price Pharmacy. After selling her business to CVS, the 74-year-old entrepreneur sold the vacant property for $2.2 million. Castro's only daughter, Alina Fernandez, hosts an opposition radio show in Miami.