CUBA’S ‘CLARION CALL FOR FREEDOM’
BIGGEST PROTESTS IN DECADES, BIDEN CALLS FOR LEADER TO STEP DOWN
Joe Biden said the United States stood with the people of Cuba and accused its communist leaders of “enriching themselves” as the biggest protests in decades swept the country.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets chanting “freedom” and “we are no longer afraid” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-canel to step down.
The protests erupted amid Cuba’s worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. It has seen a record surge in coronavirus infections, power outages, medicine shortages, and Cubans have been queuing for hours for basic necessities.
Biden said: “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.
“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.
Diaz-canel accused the U.S. of trying to provoke unrest and blamed American sanctions, and social media “influencers.”
Russia warned against any “outside interference” in Cuba, and Maria Zakharova, foreign ministry spokeswoman, said: “We are closely
following the situation in and around Cuba.”
After footage of demonstrations proliferated on social media, the Cuban authorities shut off the Internet. Mobile Internet only became available in the country in 2018.
In Havana, where a crowd grew to a few thousand, demonstrator Miranda Lazara, 53, a dance teacher, said: “We are going through really difficult times. We need a change of system.”
There were dozens of demonstrations across the country, and the government responded by deploying special forces in jeeps with mounted machine guns, and using pepper spray.
Rev. Jorge Luis Gil, a Roman Catholic priest in Havana, said: “The people came out to express themselves freely, and they are repressing and beating them.”
At a protest in Artemisa, a woman shouted: “Our children are dying of hunger!” In Cardenas, 144 kilometres from Havana, protesters upended a police car. Video footage showed a government shop being looted.
At least 80 protesters, activists, and independent journalists had been detained nationwide since Sunday, according to exiled rights group Cubalex.
“It’s becoming impossible to live here,” said Havana resident Maykel, 21, who declined to give his surname. “I don’t know if this can happen again, because at the moment, Havana is militarized. Still, Cubans are losing their fear,” he said.
Diaz-canel, speaking on television, urged counter-protesters into the streets. He said: “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.” Thousands of people, mostly young, protested against the regime in San Antonio de los Banos, a town about 25 kilometres outside Havana.
Diaz-canel later visited the town and was heckled about lack of electricity and coronavirus vaccines.
He blamed the protests on a “Cuban-american mafia” which he said had been “paying very well on social networks to influencers and Youtubers.”
Cuba’s economy contracted by 10.9 per cent last year, and only 1.7 million of its 11.2 million people have been vaccinated. There were a record 6,923 cases and 47 coronavirus deaths on Sunday.
In Miami, thousands of Cuban-americans protested in solidarity, taking to the streets of Little Havana and waving flags. Yanelis Sales, a Cuban-american protester there, said: “These young people today have finally said ‘enough is enough and we’re going to do what our old folks couldn’t do.’
“Cubans, we are here with you from the United States.”
The U.S. government warned Cuba against cracking down on demonstrations.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said: “The U.S. supports freedom of expression and assembly across Cuba, and would strongly condemn any violence or targeting of peaceful protesters.”