Cuba protests: Thousands rally against government as economy struggles
Thousands of Cubans have joined the biggest protests for decades against the island’s Communist government.
They marched in cities including the capital Havana, shouting, “Down with the dictatorship!”.
Images on social media showed what appear to be security forces detaining and beating some of the protesters.
Cubans have been angered by the collapse of the economy, as well as by restrictions on civil liberties and the authorities’ handling of the pandemic.
The protesters were demanding a faster coronavirus vaccination programme after Cuba reported a record of nearly 7,000 daily infections and 47 deaths on Sunday.
Last year, Cuba’s largely state-controlled economy shrank by 11%, its worst decline in almost three decades. It was hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions.
Thousands of pro-government supporters also took to the streets after the president went on television to urge them to defend the revolution – referring to the 1959 uprising which ushered in decades of Communist rule.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the protests were a provocation by mercenaries hired by the US to destabilise the country.
“The order to fight has been given – into the street, revolutionaries!” he said in an address on TV.
The top US diplomat for Latin America, Julie Chung, tweeted: “We are deeply concerned by ‘calls to combat’ in Cuba.”
The White House has said it stands with the Cuban people, and called on those in government to “hear their people and serve their needs” rather than their own.
“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
‘There is no freedom’
The anti-government protests began with a demonstration in the city of San Antonio de los Baños, south-west of Havana, but soon spread throughout the country.
Many were broadcast live on social networks, which showed marchers shouting slogans against the government and the president, and calling for change.
“This is the day. We can’t take it anymore. There is no food, there is no medicine, there is no freedom. They do not let us live. We are already tired,” one of the protesters, who gave his name only as Alejandro, told the BBC.
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Posts on social media showed people overturning police cars and looting some state-owned shops which price their goods in foreign currencies. For many Cubans, these shops are the only way they can buy basic necessities but prices are high.
Source: bbc.com
