Cuban president defiant, blames embargo after protests

A defiant Cuban president lashed out at the U.S. embargo against Cuba on Monday in response to rare protests across the country over the lack of food, fuel, medicine and other goods during the pandemic.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that a “politics of economic asphyxiation” was having a “cumulative effect” throughout Cuba.

He and representatives from his government said U.S. sanctions against Cuba had contributed to power outages and limited access to food and medical supplies during the pandemic.

Speaking of the economic issues in Cuban society and the reasons some have been protesting, Díaz-Canel said, “What is their origin, what is their cause? It is the blockade.”

Díaz-Canel also denounced what he called the “Cuban mafia” in Miami, referring to Cuban American community members and legislators opposed to the Communist government.

Thousands of Cubans took to the streets across the country on Sunday, shouting slogans against the government such as, “We want freedom” and “We are no longer afraid.”

The demonstrations came at a time when Cuba faces the worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, an increase in repression against political opponents and a strained health system during a critical stage of the pandemic. Health authorities reported almost 7,000 new cases and 47 deaths — a record for infections and deaths on the Caribbean island of just over 11 million people.

In Miami, hundreds of people gathered in the Little Havana neighborhood in solidarity with the growing protests in Cuba. “I know my family in Cuba is struggling, people are dying. It’s terrible,” Miami resident Christian Guzmán told NBC station WTVJ.

“Right now, it’s hard. There’s no food, there’s no medicine. The Covid outbreak. The whole country is in the streets,” Darío Suárez said.

Díaz-Canel appeared on national television earlier to call on the army to confront the protesters: “The order to fight has been given,” he said.

Díaz-Canel also called “all the revolutionaries in the country, all the communists, to take to the streets and go to the places where these provocations are going to take place.”