03 December 2010

CUBA: Protests Break Out In Bayamo, Santa Clara And Elsewhere, Testing New Openness.

M.HERALD/ FRANCES ROBLES /
     Protests have recently cropped-up on an island where public anti-government manifestations are rare and often violently suppressed.
   For 2 days in Bayamo, horse carriage drivers have protested a five-fold increase in taxes while in Santa Clara hundreds of students brawled when a soccer match was replaced by a documentary.
      And in Las Tunas and Granma, bicycle taxi drivers and truckers are refusing to work until their demands are met.
``These are regular people, real people,'' said youthful dissident Yoandri Montoya. ``People are taking to the streets because they are waking up to the new reality.''