Departure of dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez under Cuba's new travel rules

Описание: (17 Feb 2013) SHOTLIST
AP TELEVISION
1. Yoani Sanchez, dissident Cuban blogger and her husband Reinaldo Escobar, seated inside Jose Marti International Airport
2. Wide of Sanchez sitting in airport with her husband
3. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Yoani Sanchez, dissident blogger:
"I hope this trip is not my last trip. It is the most anxious one and the one I've been waiting for the longest, but I hope it's not my last."
4. Close up of Sanchez showing her passport to cameras
5. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Yoani Sanchez, dissident blogger:
"What is clear about this new stage is that I plan to remain in Cuba and will work from here. I will work as a journalist and with every passing day I will get up in the morning behaving as a freer person and the government of my country will have to accept that."
6. Close up Sanchez showing passport
7. Pan of Sanchez greeting someone and then walking over to check-in desks
8. Sanchez checking in
9. Pan of Sanchez walking towards immigration desks
10. Tilt up of Sanchez going through immigration
11. Close up immigration sign
12. Sanchez waves and passes through immigration
13. Wide exterior Jose Marti International Airport
STORYLINE
Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez left Havana on Sunday, setting out on a 3-month dozen-nation world tour after a new law eased travel restrictions on islanders last month.
Cuban authorities issued Sanchez a new passport in accordance with a recently passed law which simplifies entry and exit procedures by removing bureaucratic obstacles for those who wish to travel off the island.
Sanchez has gained international fame - and raised the ire of island authorities - with her descriptions of daily life in Cuba on her blog Generation Y, and she also writes for Spanish newspaper El Pais.
At Jose Marti International Airport, Sanchez said that she was anxious about the trip and she hoped it wouldn't be her last.
Sanchez says Cuba has denied her permission to travel about 20 times in recent years.
But the exit permit requirement ended with the government's travel reform in January, and Cubans now only need a passport to leave the country.
"I will work as a journalist and with every passing day I will get up in the morning behaving as a freer person and the government of my country will have to accept that," she said before checking in for her flight to Brazil, the first stop on her trip.
The tour includes several stops in the United States, with appearances at universities in New York and other academic programs, visits to Google and Twitter offices and time with family in Florida.
She'll also travel to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, with potential trips to Argentina and Chile in the works.
The Cuban government considers the island's small community of dissidents to be dangerous counter-revolutionaries bent on undermining its sovereignty.
Time magazine listed Sanchez as one of the world's most influential people back in 2008 for her internet blog Generation Y.


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