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Gay Rights Groups Hold Unauthorized March in Havana 


Cuban police detain gay rights activists taking part in an unauthorized march in Havana, May 11, 2019. The march was organized largely using Cuba's new mobile internet.
Cuban police detain gay rights activists taking part in an unauthorized march in Havana, May 11, 2019. The march was organized largely using Cuba's new mobile internet.

Gay rights activists using social media on Saturday organized an unauthorized march down eight blocks of one of Havana's main thoroughfares before they were stopped by police.

The march was the second by a nongovernmental organization in Cuba in slightly more than a month. That's highly unusual in a country where the only legal civil society groups are de facto arms of the Communist government.

A handful of marchers were arrested when they attempted to push through a massive police presence and continue from the Prado boulevard onto the Malecon, the capital's famous seaside promenade.

The march was organized largely using Cuba's new mobile internet, with gay rights activists and groups of friends calling for a march over Facebook and WhatsApp after the government-run gay rights organization canceled a Saturday march.

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