Belinda Salas and the other Cuban women in the Latin American Foundation of Rural Women are some of the bravest Cubans around. The dictatorship ignores their demands at their own peril.
The Associated Press reports:
HAVANA (AP) — A women's group presented thousands of signatures Thursday petitioning Cuba's parliament to close the gap in the communist country's dual economy, which pays state workers in Cuban pesos but offers basics like toilet paper in another currency that few can afford.Four women wearing white "With the Same Money" T-shirts gathered outside the legislature and attempted to turn in proof of 10,000 new signatures which they said complemented 10,837 signatures they gave lawmakers a year ago.
Their leader, Belinda Sales, said legislative clerks refused to receive the new signatures, saying lawmakers were still studying last year's petition.
She said more than a thousand members of her Latin American Foundation of Rural Women collected signatures across Cuba over the past two years, and found wide support even though authorities repeatedly seized petitions.
"Because it does not include anything political, people aren't afraid to sign," she said. "Everyone who lives in Cuba wants to be paid in one currency and have that same currency meet all their needs."
Salas is also a damn fine journalist.
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