By La Jornada On Jul 14, 2021
A La Jornada Editorial
Thousands of Cubans demonstrated last Sunday against the shortage of basic items, the shortage and the intermittent power cuts, among other demands. In a completely unusual way in the protests that take place on the island, during the marches there were looting of shops and attacks on police patrols, as well as violent arrests of those who caused excesses.
In response, President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared at the protest held in the town of San Antonio de los Baños to listen to the demands of the population and explain the reasons for the hardships afflicting the country. The president acknowledged that not all the protesters are far from being counterrevolutionary, but dissatisfied people, but he also denounced the destabilization campaign hatched by the Cuban-American mafia, and argued that those who encourage these demonstrations do not want the well-being of the people, but the privatization of health and education, neoliberalism.
It would be childish to deny that in that country, as in many others, there is a social sector dissatisfied with the authorities and determined to take to the streets to make their demands. It is known, on the other hand, that this malaise has been exacerbated and widened as a result of the prolonged pandemic that has paralyzed tourism, one of the main sources of employment and income on the island. On the other hand, it is clear that the difficulties experienced by millions of Cubans originate, in part, from government inefficiencies and bureaucratic inertia.
However, it would be enormously naive to believe that there is no promotion of these demonstrations from Washington and Miami, and it would be absurd to ignore the weight that the six decades of the U.S. blockade against the island have had in the gestation of this social anger, since this brutal and permanent violation of the human rights of all Cubans is expressly designed to generate discontent against the regime and subdue it through hunger and general deprivation.
More:
https://progresoweekly.us/cuba-unrest-and-interference/