Washington: The United States stands with Cuban people in their calls for freedom and assistance from the Coronavirus pandemic and decades of repression, said President Joe Biden on Monday.
Thousands of Cubans joined the street protest from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in the largest anti-government demonstration on the island managed by communists in decades.
They shouted “freedom” and called for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to retreat.
“We are standing with Cuban and call their Clarion for freedom and assistance from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from decades of decades and the economic suffering they have submitted by the Cuban authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.
Protests erupted in the midst of Cuban’s worst economic crisis since the breakdown of the 1991 Soviet Union, an old allied, and recently a surge in Coronavirus infection record, with people who criticized the shortage of basic goods, curb civil liberties and handling authorities and authorities from pandemic.
“Cubans boldly affirm fundamental and universal rights.
These rights, including the right to protest peace and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected,” Biden said.
“The United States called for the Cuban regime to listen to their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.” Shortly before Biden issued a statement, Diaz-Canel on Monday blamed US sanctions, which was tightened in recent years, for economic misery such as lack of drugs and power outages that triggered unusual protests this weekend.