In Cuba, it turns out, security forces really are everywhere

In Cuba, it turns out, security forces really are everywhere
By Nick Miroff December 1 at 2:30 PM

HAVANA — The protests that erupted Friday in Havana at airline offices
and outside Ecuador's Embassy were a rare occurrence in this tightly
controlled society, where street demonstrations and anti-government
activism are essentially forbidden.

As such, the protests were an opportunity to see the Cuban government's
extensive security apparatus in action. In a part of the world where
police often respond to demonstrators with riot shields, tear gas and
clubs, the Cuban government showed how it can squelch any disturbance
with subtle psychological messaging and a chess-game approach to
controlling the streets.

The protests flared up after the Ecuadoran government announced a new
visa requirement, effective Dec. 1, in an attempt to stop Cubans from
using their country as a springboard to the United States. For those who
had laid down their life savings for an airline ticket, the rules had
suddenly changed, potentially leaving them unable to travel or get a
refund. They were incensed.

It didn't really matter to Cuban authorities that the immediate target
of the protesters' ire was Ecuador, not the communist government. Cuban
officials have long insisted they cannot afford any unrest that
potentially gets out of hand, lest the Americans use it as an excuse to
intervene. The government keeps a tight lid on any anti-Castro activity,
and dissident groups like the Ladies in White who attempt weekly protest
marches are hauled off and handled roughly.

But Friday's event was different because it wasn't planned. And it was
loaded with risk, since it was driven by Cubans determined to leave,
just like the 1980 occupation of the Peruvian Embassy that led to the
Mariel boatlift.

By late morning Friday, when it became clear that airlines were not
offering refunds, an angry crowd of several hundred gathered outside the
Ecuadoran Embassy in the city's Miramar neighborhood, demanding visas
and chanting, "Give us our money back!"

Uniformed Cuban police officers flooded the area, but more impressive
was the deployment of plainclothes security agents. They seemed to
appear out of nowhere, some dressed in sneakers, ripped jeans and gold
jewelry, making them nearly indistinguishable from the protesters.
Others appeared to be moving casually among the crowd.

Only the uniformed police were armed, and they had no helmets, clubs or
other riot gear, let alone armored vehicles. Instead of projecting force
with a show of weapons or equipment, the Cuban agents with their sheer
numbers gave the impression that they were everywhere, and the situation
was never out of their control.

Calmly, methodically, Cuban police and security agents began carving up
the neighborhood around the Ecuadoran Embassy like a chessboard, closing
streets and isolating the cluster of protesters from onlookers or anyone
who might consider joining them.

Now the protesters were hemmed in. They were free to leave, but not to
return. After that it was mostly just a game of attrition.

Government trucks arrived with metal barricades to fully seal off the
area. More plainclothes officers and security agents poured in, then
soldiers and special forces troops, nearly all of them unarmed.

By late afternoon, it began to rain, and many of the protesters gave up
at that point, knowing the embassy would be closed over the weekend. A
smaller number refused to leave.

"We had to go to the bathroom right in the street, in front of the
police," said Yalena de la Oz, 30, who said she spent Friday night in
the street with other protesters who insisted they wouldn't go until
they had visas. She has a flight to Quito on Dec. 2.

The government kept its barricades and police lines in place through the
weekend, knowing it would need them Monday.

By Monday before dawn, de la Oz was back along with several hundred
others demanding a response from Ecuadoran officials. By then, the
barricades were so extensive that the protesters had to stand two blocks
from the embassy. There were easily as many police and soldiers as
demonstrators. Entire families sat on the sidewalks with their packed
suitcases.

The crowd finally dispersed Monday afternoon when Ecuadoran Embassy
officials said they would begin issuing visas to Cubans who had already
purchased flights. Cheers went up as some in the crowd went running to
make photocopies of their passports and plane tickets.

Cuban migration to the United States has surged to its highest levels in
decades this year, partly on fears that better ties with the United
States will mean an end to the unique immigration benefits they received
under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.

U.S. and Cuban officials met in Washington on Monday for regularly
scheduled talks on migration issues but remained at an impasse, as the
U.S. side said the Adjustment Act isn't up for discussion. The presence
of some 3,000 U.S.-bound Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica has put
new focus on the issue; the migrants were stopped when Nicaragua
recently closed its southern border to them.

On Tuesday morning, a few hours after the meeting in Washington, Cuban
authorities said they will reinstate the exit visa system for many
categories of doctors, saying the measure was needed to stop a brain
drain that is undermining the island's public health system. Cuban
physicians will have to apply for permission to travel abroad starting
Dec. 7, just as they did before 2013, when the government lifted
its widely despised exit visa requirement.


Nick Miroff is a Latin America correspondent for The Post, roaming from
the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to South America's southern cone. He has
been a staff writer since 2006.

Source: In Cuba, it turns out, security forces really are everywhere -
The Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/01/cubans-worry-that-security-forces-are-everywhere-they-may-be-right/