Hundreds of young artists protest on a sidewalk outside the white mansion housing Cuba’s Ministry of Culture in Havana’s once aristocratic Vedado neighborhood. Famous musicians long aligned with the communist government poke a finger at the revolution with a song that mocks a slogan penned by Fidel Castro. Rights activists march through the streets demanding greater protections for animals.
Cuba’s upcoming Communist Party Congress, in which Raúl Castro is expected to hand the reins of power to a younger generation of leaders, coincides not just with a deep economic crisis but also the advent of a nascent civil society movement demanding greater freedoms and channeling growing discontent on the island.
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