


Political Dissent
Cuban dissidents fear thaw with US 'beneficial to the tyranny'

HAVANA The weekly demonstration of a Cuban dissident group called the Ladies in White went on as usual in a Havana suburb this weekend, with women clutching pink gladioli and standing in protest under the watchful eye of the island nation's security apparatus. A leader of the group, Maria Cristina Labrada Varona, pointed at plainclothes agents posted around a park and signaled toward lampposts. "You can see the state security cameras all around," she said. As the United States relaxes its economic stranglehold of Cuba, Labrada said, groups like hers are likely to suffer. "The repressive machinery will get stronger against the Ladies in White and against human rights...