International pressure to corner the Government of Havana, or solidarity and humanitarian aid to alleviate a minimum of the serious shortage suffered by the population and is one of the causes of the great citizen unrest, a key factor in the unprecedented protests that shook Cuba on 11 and 12th of July.
Here is the dilemma being debated in the international community today –pressure, aid or a combination of both–, given that what happened in Cuba has clearly crossed its borders.
The cascade of condemnations for the repression of the protesters, in the case of Washington accompanied by sanctions against high command of the army and the police, have put Havana in a besieged plaza mode and multiplied the official arguments that the country is the subject of an attack. great media campaign and that the US is behind everything that happened.
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Simultaneously, the government, which has usually been reluctant to accept humanitarian aid as a weakness - or even an interference, if they appreciated politicization in donors - has now opened the doors wide to international solidarity and they have begun to distribute immediately the food received.
For a week, almost every day a ship or plane loaded with humanitarian aid arrives in Cuba. The Mexican government has already made several shipments of medical supplies, food, medicine and various supplies, including 100,000 barrels of fuel for the power plants of Cuban hospitals. On Friday a Bolivian air force plane landed with 20 tons of humanitarian aid, of which 2.5 tons of disposable syringes, 16.5 tons of food and one more ton of biosafety supplies. The official press reports that Russia, Vietnam, Venezuela and other "friendly" countries have sent emergency supplies, and more are expected to arrive in the coming days.
The Minister of Internal Trade, Betsy Díaz, quickly appeared on television to explain that the aid will be distributed free of charge by provinces in all households (3,800,000 in the country), pointing out that basically it will be "modules" that will contain rice, grains, pasta and sugar. After the protests that shocked Cuba, the official interest in making gestures and taking measures in the direction of alleviating, even if minimally, the hardships that turn the daily life of Cubans into an ordeal is visible.
The acceptance of humanitarian aid and its urgent distribution, although insufficient, is part of this line, as is the recent decision to eliminate until next year the payment of tariffs on food and medicine that travelers bring in their suitcases, or the authorization, tax-free, to the so-called “garage sales”, which anyone can do at home to market their own used or new merchandise, or also the authorization for the importation of solar panels without commercial purposes, until now prohibited.
It has also been announced that the long-awaited legislation that makes the start-up of small and medium-sized companies viable may be known this week.
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The 11J protests have been a shock and there are undoubtedly movements, but some economists point out that the Government would be wrong to accommodate itself in minor measures, which can serve to breathe momentarily or calm the waters, but not to face the serious economic problems that crosses the country and that are at the base of the discontent.
The international pressure of these days, with statements condemning Cuba for the police repression of the protesters and the demand that the Government listen to the voice of those who came out to protest for the moment is only serving for castling.
The recent disapproving statement by the EU High Representative
for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, on the government action during the protests on the island on July 11 and his demand for the release of the peaceful protesters provoked the immediate response of the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez. “I strongly reject the declaration of the High Representative of the EU, in which he does not dare to mention by name the genocidal US blockade that violates European sovereignty and imposes its laws and courts on it. About Cuba, lie and manipulate, ”said the minister, who yesterday referred to the new sanctions by Washington against senior Cuban police officers. "These arbitrary measures are added to the disinformation and aggression of the inhuman blockade against Cuba."
Friday's meeting between US President Joe Biden and representatives of the Cuban-American community in the United States, including Cuban rapper Yotuel Romero, author of the song
Patria y Vida
, which has become one of the protesters' slogans, explains to what extent the events of July have contributed to polarizing the situation and making a solution that involves easing Washington's sanctions more and more difficult, something that even the most critical on the island consider desirable.
“President Biden's meeting with Cuban annexationists is a farce to justify the regime change operation in Cuba. The US Government is only interested in the Florida electoral machinery, "the Cuban Foreign Minister commented on his Twitter account. While those thunders sounds from above and in the street people continue with their anguish, the international debate on what is better, if the pressure or the oxygen, continues forward.