Cuba: Stop or I'll take your car

The drivers of government-issued cars will now risk losing them unless they stop to pick up passengers going their way, at the same time that police impose heavy fines on private car owners who try to do the same.

In order to alleviate the transportation crisis affecting the island, the government established a program a year ago in which People's Transportation Inspectors, known as "the blues" because of the garb they wear, stand at selected street corners and coordinate would-be passengers with passing cars they have the authority to stop.