Flying free
For a long time, flying abroad has been no easy matter for Yoani Sanchez, Cuba’s best known dissident blogger; she has been denied permission to travel more than 20 times over the past five years.
Now, however, Sanchez has been granted a passport under Cuba's sweeping new immigration reform and she has begun an 80-day world tour. In her first stop, Brazil, she met with both criticism and support.
Yoani Sanchez addresses a news conference in Brazil. Her visit has highlighted political divides in the country, with some on Brazil's left hailing Cuba as a victim of U.S. aggression against Communism, while others praised Sanchez for fighting against political repression on the island.
People crowd to hear her speak during a debate in Brazil. The country is her first stop on an 80-day world tour, which many will be watching closely as a first test of Cuba's new travel policy.
Sanchez takes a photo with her iPhone during a debate at the higher education unit of Feira de Santana in Brazil.
Supporters for and demonstrators against Yoani Sanchez gather in Sao Paulo.
Sanchez is escorted past demonstrators in Brasilia by Brazilian congressmen Ronaldo Caiado (right) and Carlos Sampaio (centre) into the Commission on Constitution and Justice of Brazil's Congress.
Sanchez arrives in Salvador, Brazil. She is also planning to travel to Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and the United States, where she will visit the headquarters of Google, Twitter and Facebook.
Sanchez walks through the airport in Recife, Brazil.
She holds out her visa for Brazil.
Sanchez queues at the airport. She told Reuters earlier that she was excited about the opportunity to go online once she was abroad. "I want to connect to the internet without censorship, without blocked pages, without officials looking over my shoulder to see what page I'm opening," she said.
She walks with her son Teo Escobar through Havana's Jose Marti International Airport at the start of her trip.
The year before her world tour, Sanchez participated in the blogging event "Clic," held in Havana. "From now on: Internet and freedom" says the title of the blog post projected on the screen behind her.
Sanchez looks down from her balcony at her home in Havana in 2011.
Papers, notes and pictures are stuck to her refrigerator, including a quote attributed to Voltaire: "I disagree with what you say, I am in complete disagreement with it, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Sanchez's writing has attracted considerable attention abroad and she has won several international awards.
Sanchez takes the stage during a performance at the 10th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Havana.
She is helped up by a friend at her house in Havana in 2009. She said that days earlier she and two fellow bloggers were briefly detained by security agents and accused of being "counter-revolutionaries" as they walked to a demonstration against violence.
