US Reforms Bring Partying Expats Back to Cuba

Taking advantage of loosened US rules, Cuban-Americans are flocking back to Havana and sparking a mini economic boom, the Guardian reports. Expatriates are bringing everything from Victoria's Secret bras to M&Ms to toothbrushes—and, of course, American dollars—for their Cuban families. "Capitalism à la carte," said one recent arrival from Miami.

"No Cuban can get any of these things with their libreta," he added, referring to the ration book Cubans use to buy products. Other signs of US-Cuban amity are emerging, like a Havana photo exhibition displaying work by a Cuban and an American. But protests against America's 47-year-old economic embargo continue. Chanted one group of protesters: "Bush and Obama sleep in the same bed and eat from the same plate." (More Cuba stories.)