On Sunday, videos began circulating around the internet showing oppressed Cuban citizens taking to the streets, demanding freedom and relief from their dictators.
The videos show pro-freedom activists charging into their local communist party offices, vandalizing the communist party’s police vehicles and becoming vocal outside government headquarters.
Locals take control of local Communist Party office
This kind of courage & bravery needs to be shared with the whole world#SOSCuba #PatriaYVida
pic.twitter.com/IvKz3gxt9N— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 12, 2021
?#SOSCuba?
Pro-democracy protests gather in front of the Communist Party’s headquarters in Havana chanting “Cuba is not yours! Cuba is not yours!”#PatriaYVida
pic.twitter.com/ISZNRoB7jA— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) July 12, 2021
Holy shit!
Pro-democracy protestors just flipped a National Revolutionary police car in Camagüey. I have never seen anything like this.#SOSCuba #PatriaYVida
pic.twitter.com/zmOtWBqcPD— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) July 12, 2021
The videos show demonstrators waving American flags and changing “liberty” and “freedom.”
Former Vice President Biden officials were quick to say the demonstrations were due to the government’s handling of the pandemic. Juli Chung, Assistant Secretary for the US Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a tweet, “Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need.”
Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need.
— Julie Chung (@WHAAsstSecty) July 11, 2021
However, Director of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, contradicted the Biden Administration’s claims saying, “This is pretty massive. My sense is that this is a combination of social unrest based on a lack of freedoms, and covid, and economic conditions. The lack of access to electricity. The blackouts. … People are screaming for freedom.”
