Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez and sexologist Mariela Castro have clashed in a battle of tweets that had Raúl Castro’s daughter storming off the field of combat after calling her critics “despicable parasites.”

The thrusts and parries over a couple of hours Tuesday, which marked Mariela Castro’s first day in the world of digital social networking, were gleefully retweeted by many of Sánchez’s nearly 175,000 followers.

It was the third clash between two of Cuba’s best- known women — a sharp-witted blogger who regularly attacks the government, and a famous daughter who defends her father’s rule and heads the National Sex Education Center (CENSEX).

The daughter has championed the cause of Cuba’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, although some gay dissidents have complained that she demands complete loyalty to the communist system.

Castro had barely sent out her first four tweets, mostly thanking CENESEX supporters, when Sánchez sent her own tweet noting Castro’s debut and asking when Cubans might be able to “come out of our other closets?”

Minutes later, in a tweet including Castro’s account, @CastroEspinM, Sánchez welcomed the sexologist to “the plurality of Twitter” where “no one can silence me, deny me permission to travel abroad or block my entry.”

The government has repeatedly denied the blogger permission to leave the island, usually to accept one of the many international prizes that she has won for her widely read blog, Generación Y.

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