MIAMI — The moment that Cuban exiles in Florida have so fervently ached for over the past six decades did not come when the Soviet Union fell in 1991 or when Fidel Castro died in 2016. It arrived, to their surprise, last Sunday, when Cubans on the island rushed the streets to denounce a Communist government that has left them oppressed, sick and hungry. Finally, exiles thought, the Cuban people were taking matters into their own hands. Even as the protests in Cuba have appeared to quiet down following the arrests of many protesters, the gatherings in Florida, including large ones in Miami, continued throughout the week. “I never thought that this day would come,” Melisa Luis, a 19-year-old college student who arrived in the United States from Cuba four years ago, said at a small protest outside of Miami City Hall on Thursday.

Source: International New York Times July 17, 2021 06:56 UTC