Cuba described as "
unfounded and slanderous
" the sanctions announced Thursday, July 22 by Washington against its defense minister and referred the United States to police repression and violence on its own territory.
The United States "
should apply to itself the comprehensive Magnitsky law for acts of daily repression and police violence which claimed 1,201 lives in 2020
" on their soil, launched the head of Cuban diplomacy, Bruno Rodriguez , on Twitter.
Read also: Cuba: order restored under the watchful eye of Beijing and Moscow
The Magnitsky Law, dating from 2012, allows the United States to sanction foreign citizens suspected of serious human rights violations or large-scale corruption and to impose economic sanctions and migration restrictions on them.
Bruno Rodrigues denounced the sanctions imposed Thursday by the United States against the Cuban Minister of Defense, Alvaro Lopez Miera, and a special unit of the Ministry of the Interior for the repression of the July 11 protests on the island.
"
I reject the unfounded and slanderous sanctions of the United States government against (...) Alvaro Lopez Miera and the National Special Brigade
," Minister Rodriguez wrote.
"
Mock trials
"
The United States justified these sanctions by the “
repression
” of recent “
peaceful demonstrations and pro-democracy
” in Cuba, and threatened the communist island with new punitive measures. “
This is just the start. The United States will continue to sanction those responsible for the oppression against the Cuban people
, "warned President Joe Biden in a statement, condemning"
unambiguously the mass arrests and mock trials
"targeting"
those who dare to speak out
" .
"
The Cuban people demonstrate for the fundamental and universal rights that their government must guarantee them,
" said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a statement, saying she would continue to apply sanctions against the island to support “
Their quest for democracy
”. To cries of "
We are hungry
", "
Down with the dictatorship
", demonstrations took place on July 11 on the island and continued sporadically the next day. At the end of these rallies, which left one dead and dozens injured, around 100 people were arrested, according to various opposition organizations.
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