Cubans Protest on GT Waterfront

By Staff Writer

Members of the Cuban diaspora community in the Cayman Islands gathered on the George Town Waterfront on Saturday, 17th July for a peaceful protest to highlight the recent unrest in the Island Nation.

“We are here to join other human rights activists around the world to highlight the social injustice and the civil unrest that is sadly happening in Cuba. Our country is fighting for freedom,” noted Lianet Hydes; one of the protest’s organizers.

The anti-government demonstrations in Cuba began when thousands took to the streets in protest over food and medicine shortages, price hikes and the government's handling of Covid-19.

Starting with a demonstration in the city of San Antonio de los Baños, south-west of Havana, the unrest has now spread throughout the country.

Posts on social media showed people overturning police cars and looting state-owned shops that price their goods in foreign currencies.

Some of the participants Mrs. Hydes’ group point out that for many Cubans, these shops are the only way they can buy basic necessities but prices are high.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has called the demonstrators "counter-revolutionaries".

His government has blamed the United States, and its economic sanctions, for both the protests and Cuba's wider problems.

US sanctions have restricted trade with Cuba since 1962. They were tightened under former US President Donald Trump, who also imposed sanctions on Venezuela, which is Cuba's main supplier of oil.

Cuba's foreign minister called the restrictions a, "policy of economic suffocation to provoke social unrest in the country".

Speaking on Monday, President Joe Biden said the US "stands firmly with the people of Cuba as they assert their universal rights”.