BAn unprecedented protest against the Cuban government resulted in one death. The Cuban Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that a 36-year-old man was killed in a demonstration on the outskirts of Havana on Monday. According to activists, the authorities of Caribbean countries are suppressing demonstrators. According to the San Isidro protest movement, 144 people have been arrested or missing.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the deceased was a man named Diubis Laurencio Tejeda. The official Cuban news agency reported that he was involved in “turmoil” in the country. The Ministry of the Interior said it “regrets” the man’s death.
Protests across the country
Thousands of people took to the streets of Cuba on Sunday to express their dissatisfaction with the worst economic crisis in 30 years. Demonstrations were held in dozens of cities. There were also protests on Monday and Tuesday.
The protesters chanted “freedom” and “overthrow the dictatorship.” National demonstrations are extremely unusual for Cuba. The only allowed gatherings are usually Communist Party activities.
On Tuesday, many people were looking for relatives and friends in Havana. A woman who questioned her 21-year-old son at the Capital Police Station reported that many people in her community had been arrested.
Multiple arrests
She said that the police took many people away, “for all ages.” The security forces pick up your son at home. He was handcuffed and beaten. The woman said that the young man “does not wear a T-shirt or a mask.”
The temporarily arrested director and opposition activist Union Garcia also claimed to have been beaten by security forces. “We are treated as rubbish,” Garcia, one of the most famous faces of the artist protest movement 27N, wrote on the online service Facebook.
Criticism from abroad
Senior American diplomat Julie Zhong condemned the violence against the demonstrators, their arrests and the “disappearance of independent activists.” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albaron is frustrated by the arrest of Cuban journalist Camilla Acosta, who recently worked for the Spanish conservative newspaper ABC. Albaron said Acosta must be released “immediately.”
According to “ABC” editor Alexis Rodriguez, Acosta was arrested on Monday. So she worked for “ABC” for six months. She also writes for the opposition website “Cubannet”.
The party accuses the United States of meddling
According to the Cuban official newspaper Grama, President Miguel Diaz-Canel met with his predecessor Raul Castro and other members of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Tuesday to discuss the protests. According to Grama, politicians analyzed the “provocations orchestrated by counter-revolutionaries” “funded by the United States for the purpose of destabilizing Cuba.”
Data from London-based organization Netblocks shows that on Monday, Cuba restricted access to instant messaging services and online networks such as Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook and Instagram. All telecommunications in Cuba are controlled by the state. This enables the authorities of the Communist Party to censor the website.
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The United States called on Cuba on Tuesday to lift restrictions on the Internet and “respect the voice of the people.” To this end, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ned Price emphasized that “online and offline” access to “all communication methods” must be allowed. US President Joe Biden has previously expressed support for the Cuban protesters.
US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas (Alejandro Mayorkas) warned Cubans that because of the situation in Cuba, they tried to escape to the United States by sea. “Regardless of nationality, immigrants intercepted at sea are not allowed to enter the United States,” Majorcas clarified.
