In a democracy, people can disagree. They can march to protest their government, they can chastise their elected officials in public forums, they can walk down the street carrying placards voicing their opinions.

They can do all those things and as long as they aren't rioting, the police will respect their fundamental human rights.

Not in Cuba. Never in Cuba.

Once again, the Cuban regime has notched up its police state to break up peaceful protests by the Ladies in White — the wives, mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters and cousins of political prisoners. Leading the march was the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, whose son died last month in a hunger strike protesting Cuba's ill treatment of political prisoners.

The Ladies vow to continue their weeklong marches in commemoration of the 2003 "Black Spring" when Cuba's communist dictatorship accused 75 human rights activists and independent journalists and librarians of being in cahoots with U.S. "imperialists" and sentenced most of them to more than 20 years in prison.

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