Havana demonstration broken up

Cuba’s Damas de Blanco, demonstrating yesterday morning for the release of their jailed relatives near the Plaza de la Revolucion, were forcibly removed from their sit-in site, packed onto a bus, and driven home.

Reuters account here. A Christian Science Monitor reporter, in Havana, describes the Damas’ movement.

And a BBC report from Havana (in Spanish) puts the action in the context of overall opposition activity. The Damas, correspondent Fernando Ravsberg writes, are “the only dissident group that undertakes street activities. The bulk of the opposition has limited itself to working indoors, with press conferences, meetings, and statements.” Ravsberg describes divisions within the movement regarding political issues and tactics in the face of a government that “practically every week announces changes, the large majority of which are well received by the public.” The movement, he writes, is “small, divided, and with very little social influence.”

I’m sure that many will read that as criticism, but Ravsberg is leading to an interesting question. If changes in Cuba continue, and especially if additional changes materially affect all Cubans, not only those with hard currency to spend, will that change the political context in which the opposition operates? Will it change tactics? Should it?

[Reuters photo]