NEW YORK — Several years ago, during my first visit to Cuba to attend a health-related meeting, I witnessed a demonstration. As friends and I walked into the Bodeguita del Medio, a traditional restaurant famous for the number of illustrious visitors who had dined there over the years, a young Cuban man was discreetly asked to leave.

Seeing my friends and me, and realizing we weren't Cuban, he began ranting against government restrictions on Cubans.

"I have money to spend here," he told us. "But they prefer to have foreigners eat here. I am fed up with this regime.