Cuba blames US ‘asphyxiation’ as protests erupt

Police cars are seen overturned during a demonstration against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana. (AFP)

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel yesterday blamed historic protests this weekend on US “economic asphyxiation” and social media campaigns by a minority of counter-revolutionaries while US President Joe Biden said he stood with the Cuban people. The protests erupted amid Communist-run Cuba’s worst economic crisis with the tightening of decades-old US sanctions exacerbating shortages of food and medicine as well as power outages amid a surge in Covid-19 infections. “In the last few weeks the campaign against the Cuban revolution has increased in social media, drawing on the problems and shortages we are living,” Diaz-Canel said in a televised address alongside his Cabinet. A minority of counter-revolutionaries were fomenting unrest, he said, denouncing vandalism that took place across various cities on Sunday in Cuba’s biggest anti-government demonstrations in decades. “They threw stones at foreign currency shops, they stole items ... and at police forces, they turned over cars — a totally vulgar, indecent and delinquent behaviour,” he said. The streets of Havana appeared quiet yesterday morning, although special forces patrolled its seafront boulevard. Biden in a statement yesterday said the United States stands with the people of Cuba in their call for freedom and relief from the coronavirus pandemic and decades of repression. “The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected,” Biden said. “The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” said Biden, who during his White House campaign promised to ease sanctions but has yet to do so. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday that Cuba’s leader was wrong to blame the United States for historic protests and was not listening to his people. “It would be a grievous mistake for the Cuban regime to interpret what is happening in dozens of towns and cities across the island as a result or product of anything the United States has done,” Blinken told reporters when asked about the remarks by President Miguel Diaz-Canel. “They are simply not hearing the voices and will of the Cuban people — people deeply, deeply, deeply tired of repression that has gone on for far too long,” Blinken said. The United States had tightened sanctions on Cuba under Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor, including restricting key remittances in the middle of the pandemic. Diaz-Canel did not directly address the US statement, issued during his address. But he attacked what he called Washington’s hypocrisy for expressing concern when it was fueling the crisis in Cuba with its trade embargo. “Is it not very hypocritical and cynical that you block me ... and you want to present yourself as the big saviour?” he said. “Lift the blockade...and then we will see what this people, that has achieved an immense social work despite what is practically a war economy, is capable of.” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gave Cuba backing yesterday, saying the US economic embargo on the island should be ended to help its people. “The truth is that if one wanted to help Cuba, the first thing that should be done is to suspend the blockade of Cuba as the majority of countries in the world are asking,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference. Russia yesterday warned against any “outside interference” in Cuba after thousands took part in rare protests against the Communist government on the island nation. “We consider it unacceptable for there to be outside interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state or any destructive actions that would encourage the destabilisation of the situation on the island,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. She did not explain who might be trying to interfere in Cuba, but the warning appeared directed at the United States, which has urged Cuba not to target protesters and where thousands of Cuban-Americans have taken to the streets to support the demonstrations. “We are closely following the development of the situation in and around Cuba,” Zakharova said. “We are convinced that Cuban authorities are taking all necessary measures to restore public order in the interests of the country’s citizens and within the framework of the Constitution.” Cuba was an important Cold War ally of the Soviet Union and Moscow has continued to have good diplomatic relations with Havana since the 1991 collapse of the USSR.