The proposal to drop the US’s ban on its citizens travelling to Cuba is to be welcomed, not least for the simple fact that Cubans could do with the money that tourism from the US will bring. This is a welcome step towards normalisation.

The Cubans could reciprocate by using tourist dollars to develop the island’s Internet. According to the Freedom on The Net report, only 240,000 — 2.1 per cent of the population — Cubans have access to the world wide web, and that access can be painfully slow.

One of those Cubans who has access to the web is Yoani Sanchez, who blogs at Generation Y. On 29 March, Sanchez did something that doesn’t happen very often in Cuba — during an arts event, she made a speech criticising the government and calling for more free expression. You can read her account here here. The government has accused Sanchez of ‘provocation’

Here’s Yoani Sanchez and others, ‘provoking’ the Cuban government.