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Biden urges the Castro regime to listen to the protests of Cubans: "It is a call for freedom"

2021-07-12T16:52:28.215Z


The President of the United States, who has maintained the sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration, calls for the right to peaceful mobilizations in the streets to be respected


Joe Biden has given a boost to the Cuban protesters in his first statement on the protests unleashed this Sunday against the Castro regime, the largest since the crisis of the 1990s.

In a statement sent this Monday morning, the president of the United States has asked Havana to respond to the demands of the Cubans.

"We are with the Cuban people and their loud and clear call for freedom and relief" in the face of the ravages of the pandemic and "the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by the Cuban authoritarian regime."

More information

  • Cuba accuses the US of provoking social protests on the island "with a policy of suffocation"

  • Cuba is experiencing the largest protests against the Government since the crisis of the 1990s

The Democratic leader, who has distanced himself from the policy of the thaw initiated by Barack Obama, has requested respect for the peaceful protest on the island. "The Cuban people are bravely claiming their fundamental and universal rights," he points out in his text, and concludes: "The United States calls on the Cuban regime to listen to its people."

Biden's words were made public the same morning that the leader of the Castro regime, Miguel Díaz-Canel, denounced that Washington maintains "a policy of economic suffocation to provoke social outbreaks in the country." Since he was installed in the White House last January, the new Democratic president has not touched a single of the sanctions imposed by the Republican Administration of Donald Trump, not even the entry into force of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, that allows the lawsuits of US citizens against international companies for profiting from properties confiscated by Fidel Castro after the revolution, despite the demands of the allies of the European Union.

The thawing process promoted by the Obama Administration, of which Biden was vice president, did not bring with it the expected advances in democratization, openness and human rights and Trump ended it with an artillery of sanctions that have ended up making a dent in the economy and well-being of the island. The softening of the pulse with Havana offers very limited political benefits for Biden and serious potential damages, given the Republican pressure, especially in electoral fiefdoms as important as Florida. Marco Rubio, conservative senator for this state, criticized that the president's pronouncement did not arrive until 24 hours after the start of the protests and warned against the "blackmail" of Havana to return to the framework of relations of the Obama era.

The Acting Undersecretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the State Department, Julie Chung, published a message on Sunday on her Twitter account that provoked criticism from Republicans, as she attributed the protests to the problems derived from COVID-19, without mentioning the repression.

“Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba, the people are exercising their right to assembly to express their concern about the increase in cases and deaths from COVID and the shortage of medicines.

We acknowledge the efforts of the Cuban people organizing donations to help their compatriots, "Chung wrote, although this Monday he also expressed concern about" calls to combat "by the regime.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-12

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