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CUBA BLAMED A US “policy of economic suffocation” for unprecedented anti-government protests, as president Joe Biden backed calls to end “decades of repression” on the communist island.
Thousands of Cubans took part in demonstrations on Sunday, chanting: “Down with the dictatorship,” as President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged supporters to confront demonstrators.
The anti-government rallies erupted spontaneously in several cities as the country endures its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with chronic shortages of electricity and food.
The only authorized gatherings in Cuba are usually events of the ruling Communist Party, but according to the data journalism site Inventario, a total of 40 demonstrations took place on Sunday.
Police used tear gas to disperse crowds, and at least ten people were arrested, while officers used plastic pipes to beat protesters, AFP journalists witnessed.
Diaz-Canel on Monday blamed the uprising on the United States pursuing a “policy of economic suffocation to provoke social unrest in the country.”
Cuba has been under US sanctions since 1962.
From Washington, Biden urged the government in Havana to “hear” its people’s demands.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.
“The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he added.
No ‘interference’ please
Mexico and Russia on Monday warned against using the unrest as a pretext for foreign interference.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador warned against an “interventionist” approach to the unprecedented Cuban protests, and offered to send aid.
Russia, for its part, warned against “outside interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.”
US-Cuba relations have been particularly fraught since then-president Donald Trump reinforced the blockade following an historic but temporary easing of tensions under Barack Obama between 2014 and 2016.
The tougher measures, left unchanged by Biden, and the effects of the coronavirus epidemic contributed to Cuba’s economy declining 11 percent in 2020.
Public anger in the one-party state has been growing, driven by long food lines, worsening power shortages and a critical shortage of medicines.
The country of 11.2 million people is experiencing its toughest phase of the coronavirus pandemic, and on Sunday reported a new daily record of infections and deaths.
On Sunday, several hundred protesters marched through the capital Havana chanting, “We want liberty,” as a heavy military and police deployment kept watch.
Social media showed scenes from protests around the country, but mobile internet — only introduced in 2018 — was largely cut off on Sunday afternoon.
‘Into the street, revolutionaries!’
Diaz-Canel delivered a combative television address Sunday, saying: “The order to fight has been given — into the street, revolutionaries!”
“We call on all revolutionaries of the country, all communists, to go out in the streets where these provocations occur… and to face them in a decisive, firm and courageous way.”
The protests had started in the town of San Antonio de los Banos, a town 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Havana, where several thousand protesters, mainly young people, took to the streets.
One local, on condition of anonymity, told AFP she was there because she was exasperated by “the situation with electricity and food.”
Security forces arrived soon after, and the president later visited the town surrounded by party activists as residents heckled him, according to videos posted online.
International pleas
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday urged the Cuban authorities to permit peaceful anti-government protests that have broken out on the island and heed the complaints of demonstrators.
“I would like to call on the government there to allow peaceful demonstrations and to listen to the discontent being expressed by the demonstrators,” Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
President Joe Biden told Cuba’s communist government not to resort to violence against street protests and said the United States stands with demonstrators.
“We call on the government of Cuba to refrain from violence,” Biden.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.
“The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he added.
© AFP 2021 and additional reporting Niall O’Connor.
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A great deal of the hardship arises from the world’s bully imposing sanctions for decades. They then have the neck to call for freedom.
@Anto Harris: yes yes true
Yes indeed, it always amazes me how people could ever be dissatisfied living under a Communist dictatorship with a very efficient security service who suppress and jail all political opposition and how many Irish people who profess to believe in freedom and democracy see them as ingrates and U.S. dupes for doing so. Funny how Cuba is always great for their holidays but they wouldn’t want to live there! And no, I don’t work for the CIA nor am I on their payroll but if they’re monitoring the Journal comments section then hey, I’m available and I’ve seen all the ‘Bourne’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ movies…
@William Tallon: the US has no moral authority to oppose dictatorships. It has allied with dictatorships for generations. It has allied with some dictatorships only to overthrow them after they have become less useful. The US has supported coups against democracies, and only occasionally against dictatorships, but in the latter only when useful to the US
When it gets involved it’s about power.
@john smith iv: Using that logic then most democratic countries today should just keep quiet about human rights abuses by dictatorships because of their own not too perfect history in that area. You’ve sort of proven my point. You seem to be suggesting that because you believe the US to be morally bankrupt that if it expresses support for people protesting a very repressive dictatorship that automatically makes those protesting extremely suspect and probably US agents or dupes. The bottom line is either you believe Cuba to be a repressive dictatorship and you support the right of its people to demand freedom and democracy or you don’t. I support them. I support freedom and democracy for all people even those in the US…
@William Tallon: I didn’t say “most democratic countries” now did I. That’s your straw man editorialising. I said the US. Nor did I say the protestors were dupes, you inferred that. The bottom line is that US has no moral authority to demand the end of dictatorships it disagrees with while propping up or supporting dictatorships or feudal kingdoms like Saudi Arabia.
@john smith iv: You’re perfectly correct, I mentioned them by way of contextualising and illustrating my point. No ‘strawman’ argument or editorialising. You’ve missed my point or as I think is more likely ignored it. I’ve made what I consider a totally logical inference by the way given your obvious and single-minded antipathy towards all things US which I think has affected you ability to make any sort of unbiased and meaningful point in relation to the current situation in Cuba. You still haven’t said whether you support the right of people in Cuba to protest and demand freedom and democracy. Your silence is interesting…
@William Tallon: well said man.
@William Tallon: When one looks at Cuba it’s unfair to compare the system to European democracies. When Castro took power in Cuba the vast majority of the population was illiterate and extremely impoverished with no medical system. Now illiteracy has practically been wiped out with a high standard of education for all, the medical system is one of the best in the world(despite American pharmaceutical being unable to supply it) and the vast majority of Cubans are happy with the political system despite the shortages they have to endure, mostly because of U.S. sanctions. When one compares life in Cuba to the rest of Latin America one can see the true progress it has made since the revolution . Why are the U.S. soo afraid to lift the sanctions?
@john smith iv: The US doesn’t need moral authority. It’s authority comes from the fact that it spends dollars and blood to exert whatever influence it deems necessary to achieve it’s goals. I am surprised they didn’t take care of Cuba when the Soviet Union fell. They missed the easiest opportunity then, but they are free to deal with Cuba now in whatever way they see fit.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell not urge the US to end the sanctions that are arguably the main cause of the economic crisis and shortages. Pretty hard to be prosperous when living under crippling sanctions.
Why does the ….
Ah ya its not like the US have ever interfered in Cuban affairs…. The whole bay of pigs fiasco… The fact Guantanamo bay is held hostage by the US. Castro has survived 634 assination attempts by all accounts…. Then there was the whole USAID sponsored social media outlet run by the CIA. I think I;ll finish with the yearly UN vote to lift US sanctions on Cuba that every nation is the world voted for except the US and Israel…..
The Yanks have been waiting to pounce and put a puppet government in Cuba for the past 60 years.
From Wikipedia.
1952 – 1959 the dictator Batista seized power with support from the United States. Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. He placed most of the main industries including the sugar industry in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land. He negotiated lucrative relationships both with the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts.
Rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958. Brutal US sanctions followed which are still active today.
Here’s Cuba, shows how dysfunctional it is, why people protest: https://youtu.be/wcseyA2aL8k?t=63
@David Jordan: just some guy walking around shops
@David Jordan: wanting Wexford strawberries in winter
@john smith iv: Is that really all you can garner from that video?
@Alan Watt: Yes because nappies, toilet rolls and ballcocks are seasonal….
@David Jordan: Wouldn’t be so bad if the US would lift the pointless sanctions they’ve been under since long before the Cold War ended. There was a vote to lift the sanctions recently, only two nations voted against, the USA and Israel… Over 180 voted to lift sanctions, that says it all.
@Alan Watt: “wanting Wexford strawberries in winter”
That is very intensive, once of the people interviewed was traveling around Cuba trying to find chemotherapy drugs for his son who has cancer.
@David Jordan: If Europe imposed sanctions here, we wouldn’t be far off that
I guess some influencal sectors of a near by nation wants their casinos and brothels back again.
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