Days numbered for Cuba's colourful plates
Possible prototypes of Cuba's new markers. Images: www.kubafotos.com For a decade, Cuba's colour-coded licence plates have been a highly visible part of the island's automotive scene. But this month, Cuba begins the retirement of the system that allowed an observer – let's say a motorcycle cop tucked behind a "Patria O Muerte" billboard – to know from a distance whether a car was privately owned (yellow plate, good to ticket), rented by a tourist (red, even better) or operated by a government agency such as the all-powerful Ministry of the Interior (green, uh uh). Now, all privately owned cars, trucks and motorcycles will wear plates with black letters on a white background. State-owned vehicles get the same drab, two-colour scheme, but with a dab of blue on the side or in a corner. And this isn't the only change. Cuba's licence plates have long conformed to the rectangular, six-by-12-inch (155 by 305 millimetres) fo...