Foreign Policy Blogs

Protest for Cuban democracy

For those who missed today’s protest in New York:

 

Credit: El Cubano Cafe blog
Credit: El Cafe Cubano blog

Protestors in front of the Cuban mission to the United Nations today included Cuban exiles asking only for the right to travel freely to and from their country, and to have the right “to choose to be a normal country.” Fifty years of Castro, they say, has been enough. The protestors maintain that they are not “activists,” per se, and hold differing views on a number of issues on the island. They do agree, however, that the Cuban population itself should have the power and right to be the impulse for change in the country.

The story is here in Spanish.

 

Author

Melissa Lockhart Fortner

Melissa Lockhart Fortner is Senior External Affairs Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, having served previously as Senior Programs Officer for the Council. From 2007-2009, she held a research position at the University of Southern California (USC) School of International Relations, where she closely followed economic and political developments in Mexico and in Cuba, and analyzed broader Latin American trends. Her research considered the rise and relative successes of Latin American multinationals (multilatinas); economic, social and political changes in Central America since the civil wars in the region; and Wal-Mart’s role in Latin America, among other topics. Melissa is a graduate of Pomona College, and currently resides in Pasadena, California, with her husband, Jeff Fortner.

Follow her on Twitter @LockhartFortner.