Cubans take to the streets after 6 years of silence

BY ONMIYA ALI

What happens when accountability is deflected?

After a sixty-year silence, Cuban citizens decide to take to the streets to demonstrate their dismay. Although the general population had been silent before, their living conditions have gradually been deteriorating, basic goods and services have been lacking, medical attention is not accessible, and numbers of coronavirus infections are on the rise.

Thousands demanding an end to the sixty-two-year-old communist regime were met with deflection and aggression. Starting on Sunday in the western city of San Antonio de los Baños, protests spread across forty cities and towns including the capital, Havana. Feeling threatened, President Miguel Diaz-Canel called on supporters to take back the streets from the protesters and deployed security forces across the country. Going as far as disrupting communications including internet and phone services, to further silence and isolate the struggles of the population.

In the capital, Havana, state forces and Communist Party militants armed with heavy sticks attacked some protestors and arrested more than 100. As a result, hundreds of Cubans have lined up outside police stations looking for missing relatives. Among those detainees are the leaders of Cuba’s most important opposition group, visual artist Luis Manuel Otero, poet Amaury Pacheco and José Daniel Ferrer.

 “For the first time ever, authorities deployed anti-riot equipment. Last night, police used rubber bullets and tear gas,” said Ángel Rodríguez, a 31-year-old human-rights activist in Havana.

What triggered the protests?
With the economy taking a nosedive of more than 11% in the midst of a pandemic, tourism was nearly non-existent as it was globally in the past year. In addition, Cubans living abroad were no longer able to send remittances, both of which are crucial to a family’s income. As a result, Cubans now stand in lines for hours to purchase basic goods such as chicken or bread, or to access public transit. The island has also been increasingly facing electricity outages for hours at a time.

How did the communist government respond?
According to President Díaz-Canel “protests were being led by a minority of counter-revolutionaries, sold out to the U.S government.”

Although this hostile response raises many red flags and seems aggressive enough, the Cuban government did not stop there. President Díaz-Canel proceeded to encourage supporters of the regime to take back the streets from the demonstrators, causing attacks on protestors. Netblock, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the Internet, reported that the government had partially disrupted access to social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram.

U.S. involvement
In the wake of these events, President Biden released a statement of support on Monday. Where he said: “We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime”.

“The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he added.

However, this statement might as well mean nothing as President Díaz-Canel blamed electricity outages, food, and medicine shortages on the U.S embargo and restrictions implemented by the Trump administration to cut off Cuban access to hard currency. Thereby, calling on the Biden administration to remove the sanctions.

With the blame getting tossed between President Díaz-Canel and President Biden, the only person suffering is the average Cuban citizen. Once again, the voices of those in power drain out the rest.