Thousands of Cubans demonstrated against the government on Sunday in the streets of a small town southwest of Havana, an unprecedented event, according to videos posted online.
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To cries of "
Fatherland and life!"
", The title of a controversial song, but also of"
Down with the dictatorship! "
", And"
We are not afraid!
», The demonstrators, mostly young, marched in San Antonio de los Baños, a town of 50,000 people about thirty kilometers from the capital.
Since the start of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus in March 2020, Cubans have had to wait in long lines to stock up on food and have faced a shortage of medicines, which has generated strong social unrest.
The demonstration took place on the day Cuba recorded a new daily record of contamination and deaths from the coronavirus, with 6,923 cases for a total of 238,491 cases and 47 deaths in 24 hours for a total of 1,537 deaths.
"
These are alarming figures, which are increasing every day
", commented Sunday the chief epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health, Francisco Duran, during his usual press conference on television.
Under the hashtag #SOSCuba "
or #SOSMatanzas
" (SOSMassacres), calls for help are multiplying on social networks, as are appeals to the government to facilitate the sending of donations from abroad.
On Saturday, a group of opponents called for the establishment of a "
humanitarian corridor
", an initiative that the government has rejected.
"
The concepts of humanitarian corridor and humanitarian aid are associated with areas of conflict and do not apply to Cuba,
" said on Saturday the director of consular affairs and in charge of Cubans living abroad at the Cuban Chancellery. , Ernesto Soberon.
The authorities also denounced "
a campaign
" which seeks "
to present an image of total chaos in the country which does not correspond to the current situation
".
The government should nevertheless allow an email address on Monday to speed up donations from abroad, Soberon said.