Dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police watch silently every Sunday morning as white-clad dissidents file into Mass at Santa Rita Church in a leafy Havana neighborhood of mansions overlooking the Florida Straits.

The officers stand by until the women shout “Freedom!” and try to sit on the street outside the church. The protesters are whisked off to police stations and empty schools, held for hours, released and driven home, to return the following week.