The faux flower installations have popped up at restaurants and other businesses in Lake View, Lincoln Park, the West Loop and beyond, mirroring a global trend.
The most surprising claim of some sympathizers of the Cuban system is that it is democratic. This is argued in spite of the dictatorial one-party state and the repression that State Security carries out on a routine basis to maintain the regime in power, and that many of its most important decisions, such as the agrarian reform in 1959 were mainly carried out from above and not from below.