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Thousands of people angered by food and medicine shortages took to the streets across Cuba shouting “freedom” at the largest anti-government demonstrations seen on the communist-ruled island for decades.
Riot police used pepper spray and batons against some of the protesters in Havana on Sunday, but in the evening they had not directly confronted the majority. Witnesses saw men dressed in civilian clothes dragging some protesters to the police cars they were waiting for and reported that they had seen special forces jeeps with machine guns mounted on the street.
Protests were also reported in the city of Palma Soriano, in the east of the country, near Santiago and also in San Antonio de los Baños, in the south of Havana, where protesters shouted: “Down with the dictatorship ! ” In Matanzas, a video on social media showed protesters knocking over cars.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel delivered a national emergency speech on television on Sunday afternoon that interrupted the scheduled football coverage and told Cubans: “We will not allow anyone to manipulate our situation. . . the order to fight has been given, the revolutionaries on the street. “
Protests appeared to have begun in San Antonio, where residents chanted anti-government slogans and demanded a halt to coronavirus restrictions and blackouts. Diaz-Canel visited the city and later said the protesters had been manipulated by U.S.-led campaigns on social media.
In Havana, some protesters wearing masks said they were tired of the communist system, the dollar shops used to sell scarce products and the lack of medicines. Social media was flooded with videos posted about the protests.
In Miami, members of the large Cuban-American community took to the streets to show support for the protests, and Republican Gov. Ron de Santis tweeted: Havana. The Cuban dictatorship has repressed the people of Cuba for decades and is now trying to silence those who have the courage to protest against their disastrous policies. “
Cuba has been facing its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, its main sponsor until then. The coronavirus has devastated tourism revenues, the main exporter, and the stricter US sanctions imposed by the Donald Trump administration have drowned the economy. So far no hope has materialized for the Joe Biden administration to facilitate sanctions.
The Díaz-Canel government tried to introduce limited economic reforms at the beginning of the year, severely devaluing the peso and allowing more freedom to the private sector, but they had little impact in the midst of a deep recession. Food and fuel shortages have worsened and many Cubans spend hours queuing for commodities.
In April, Raúl Castro he left the post as head of the Communist Party at the age of 89, marking the first time since the 1959 revolution, led by his brother Fidel, that a Castro had not been at the head of the country.
The carefully choreographed transition to a younger generation of leaders came months after a protest by the San Isidro artist collective against the lack of freedoms on the island. A rap song written earlier this year by dissident musicians of the group subverted the consecrated Cuban revolutionary slogan “Patria o Muerte” (“Homeland or Death”), replacing it with “Patria i Vida” (“Homeland and Life”) – a phrase called Sunday by some of the protesters.
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