Dissidents fear being left in cold by US-Cuba thaw

Anti-American protests in Cuba are nothing new.

But in a surprising role reversal, it's the communist island's anti-Castro dissidents who are now taking to the street to denounce President Barack Obama, fearful of losing US backing as Washington restores ties with Havana.

Some 90 dissidents were arrested Sunday at a protest against the reopening of the US embassy in Havana.

The protest underscored the anxiety of the opposition movement as Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to visit Cuba on Friday to officially reopen the US embassy and fly the American flag over the building for the first time since January 3, 1961.

The visit will put a symbolic coda on the historic rapprochement announced on December 17 by US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, which paved the way for the Cold War enemies to restore diplomatic ties last month.

Many of the dissidents at Sunday's protest were wearing masks of Obama to protest his new Cuba policy.
"It's his fault, what's happening," said former political prisoner Angel Moya at the protest.

"The Cuban government has grown even bolder... That's why we have this mask on. Because it's his fault."

Shortly afterwards, Moya was arrested along with scores of other protesters, including some 50 members of the Ladies in White dissident group, led by his wife, Berta Soler.

Those detained were released after several hours in custody.

The United States said it was "deeply concerned" over the incident but that it would not affect Kerry's visit.

- Inverted script -

Sunday's protest inverted the Cold War-era script in place since Raul's brother Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959.

For more than five decades, protests against the US administration were organized by Castro's own government, which lashed out at American presidents from Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) to George W. Bush (2001-2009).
The, dissidents got arrested for siding with the United States, not for protesting it.

Meanwhile, Washington was the dissident movement's biggest benefactor.

For decades the US government has allocated millions of dollars a year for the "promotion of democracy in Cuba" -- though much of that money goes to Cuban exile groups in the United States, particularly Radio and TV Marti, the Miami-based broadcaster that gets $27 million a year in federal funding.

Now, dissidents say, Washington has turned its back on their fight for democracy.

"Since December 17, the whole discussion around Cuba has changed," said dissident leader Antonio Rodiles.

"The issue of promoting democracy has been pushed to the background and instead the conversation is focused on promoting business opportunities and foreign investment."

- Internal divisions -

But not all Cuba's dissidents are opposed to the rapprochement.
The thaw has laid bare fresh disagreements in the opposition community, long weakened by its own internal divisions.

"I'm one of those who thinks this (rapprochement) is good for Cuba... because it takes away the argument the regime has tried to use for 50 years to explain its refusal to change, an argument tied to the rift with the United States," dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua told AFP.

"The normalization of ties with the United States is a positive step for Cuba for one reason: It creates expectations, it breaks the government's inertia and opens a space for people to imagine that things could change," said artist Tania Bruguera.
Bruguera made headlines in December, two weeks after the rapprochement was announced, for trying to hold an open-mic session on Havana's Revolution Square for Cubans to speak out about their future.

Some dissidents pointed to her arrest as a sign that the Obama administration was making a mistake by moving to restore ties.

Officials have not said whether Kerry will meet with any dissidents on his trip.