Cuban protesters clash over anti-Castro prisoners
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EmailAnti-government protesters marched through central Havana on Thursday to draw attention to the plight of political prisoners, but were outnumbered by a vocal group of counter-protesters.
The Ladies in White, most of them mothers and wives of some of the 75 men who were jailed in 2003 on charges involving treason and collaboration with a foreign power, have vowed to protest every day this week.
Tania Montoya Vazquez, whose husband was sentenced to five years in jail in 2008, said: "We are marching because we have spent seven years in pain and suffering."
The moment the women stepped out of a church on Cuba Street in Havana, they were surrounded by angry citizens.
The crowd grew as the march began, and soon the Ladies in White were outnumbered, their chants of "freedom" drowned out by determined counter-demonstrators who danced and called them "worms," calling on them to get out of Cuba.
"This street belongs to Fidel - Fidel, for sure! Give it to the yanquis good," they shouted.
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