American Flags Seen in Cuba, but Repression Still Going Strong

In the wake of President Barack Obama's decision to normalize relations with the Castro regime, there has been an unexpected outburst of flag-waving in Cuba these days — of the American flag, The New York Times reported.

The Stars and Stripes has been showing up on apartment buildings, T-shirts, bandannas and spandex pants.

"I am seeing things in Cuba I thought I would never see," said one middle-aged man in Havana.

Some experts suggest the American flag sightings are a spontaneous sign of how excited Cubans are about the economic benefits that will flow from normalization of ties with the United States.

"This is Cuba's current popular zeitgeist, if you will, and these cultural expressions reflect this," said Marc D. Perry, a Tulane University anthropologist who studies Cuban social trends.

But in a country where saying something different from the regime political line can result in a visit from the security services or worse, people are guarded when asked about clothing and other items with images of the American flag.

"It's just fashion," one woman defensively told the Times. "It isn't a statement."

Cuba's communist government has given the people plenty of reason to be wary about discussing politics. Amnesty International (AI), for example, points to Cuban "prisoners of conscience" who are behind bars for exercising their "legitimate rights to freedom of expression and demonstration."

There is the case of Ciro Alexis Casanova Perez, currently imprisoned in central Cuba, for "holding a peaceful one-man demonstration against the Cuban government in the streets of his hometown," AI's Robin Guittard wrote in Newsweek on Tuesday.

In today’s Cuba, he added, "it remains virtually impossible for anyone to peacefully express ideas opposing the Cuban government. All media are under the strict control of the state, as are unions. Despite the subsequent release of dozens of political prisoners early this year, short-term arrests and harassment of political dissidents and human rights activists remain a troubling reality on the island."

The harassment of dissidents sometimes takes the form of "government-coordinated demonstrations, usually carried out in front of the homes of political opponents. During an act of repudiation, political opponents and human rights activists are subjected to verbal and physical abuse by groups of people chanting pro-government slogans," Guittard added.

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