Cuba's dissident blogger Yoani arrives in Brazil

Feira de Santana (Brazil), Feb 18 (AP) Cuba's most recognisable dissident landed in Brazil today, cheered by supporters and hounded by protesters on her first stop of a three-month global tour and her first trip abroad in nearly a decade after being blocked 20 times from leaving the communist-run island. Yoani Sanchez was beaming when she arrived in the northeastern city of Salvador in Bahia state, basking in the fame brought by her influential blog and her columns in the Spanish daily El Pais and the Brazilian newspaper Estado de S Paulo. Sanchez was surrounded by supporters and journalists as she walked through the airport, but at one point, protesters threw photocopied replicas of US dollar bills at her. One protester got close enough to pull her hair. A small group of pro-Cuba protesters held up signs that read "Yoani Sanchez is financed by the CIA" and "Down with the American blockade of Cuba, Yoani Sanchez is a persona non grata in Bahia." Cuban authorities consider the small community of outspoken dissidents on the island to be traitorous "mercenaries" who accept foreign money to try to undermine the government. "This is something you don't see in my country," Sanchez said, motioning toward the protesters. She called the protest a "shower of democracy and pluralism." "I wish we had freedom like this in my country," she added. Sanchez's ability to leave her homeland was seen as a test of a new Cuba law, announced in October, that eliminates the exit permit that had been required of islanders for five decades. Cuban authorities can still deny travel in cases of defense and "national security," among other reasons, and some dissidents continue to face restrictions. Still, the exit permit's demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raul Castro's ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society. Taking effect January 14, the law ended the much-loathed exit visa requirement, which was routinely withheld from dissidents, doctors, military officers and others individuals considered to be politically sensitive. The reform also simplified other bureaucratic procedures that had made overseas travel complicated for Cubans. (AP) SAI 02190136 NNNN