Cuba sees biggest protests for decades as pandemic adds to woes

HAVANA • Chanting "freedom" and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests from Havana to Santiago in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades.

The protests on Sunday erupted amid Cuba's worst economic crisis since the fall of its old ally the Soviet Union and a record surge in coronavirus infections.

People voiced their anger over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the authorities' handling of the pandemic.

Thousands took to the streets in various parts of Havana including the historic centre, their shouts of "Diaz-Canel step down" drowning out groups of government supporters waving the Cuban flag and chanting "Fidel".

Special forces jeeps, with machine guns mounted on the back were seen throughout the capital and the police presence was heavy even long after most protesters had gone home by the 9pm curfew in place due to the pandemic.

"We are going through really difficult times," said Ms Miranda Lazara, 53, a dance teacher, who joined the protesters in Havana. "We need a change of system."

Mr Diaz-Canel, who also heads the Communist Party, blamed the unrest on old Cold War foe the United States, which in recent years tightened its decades-old trade embargo on the island, in a televised speech on Sunday.

He said many protesters were sincere but manipulated by US-orchestrated social media campaigns and "mercenaries", and warned that further "provocations" would not be tolerated.

Ms Julie Chung, acting undersecretary at the US State Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said it was deeply concerned by "calls to combat" in Cuba and stood by the Cuban people's right for peaceful assembly.

Witnesses in the Havana protests saw security forces, aided by suspected plainclothes officers, arrest about two dozen protesters. Police used pepper spray and hit some protesters as well as a photographer working for the Associated Press.

Some protesters said they rallied after seeing what was happening on social media, which has become an increasingly important factor since mobile Internet was launched 21/2 years ago.

The anti-government demonstrations were the largest since the summer of 1994, said Florida International University's assistant professor of Latin American history Michael Bustamante.

Cuba has begun a mass Covid-19 inoculation drive, with 1.7 million of its 11.2 million residents vaccinated so far. Still, the arrival of the Delta variant has prompted cases to surge, with the authorities reporting a record 6,923 cases and 47 deaths on Sunday - twice as many as the week before.

REUTERS