Cuban authorities denied, Tuesday, July 13, any “Social explosion” in Cuba, after violent protests against the government, which resulted in one death and around 100 arrests.
“On July 11, there was no social explosion in Cuba, there was none because of the will of our people and the support of our people for the revolution and its government”, declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez, in a press conference. It was about “Disorders on a very limited scale”, he added, ensuring that “Conditions in the country [étaient] totally normal ”.
Like President Miguel Diaz-Canel before him, Rodriguez accused Washington of being behind, because of its sanctions policy and an Internet campaign, the protests that erupted on Sunday on the socialist island. in about forty towns and villages to the cries of ” We are hungry “, ” Freedom “ and “Down with the dictatorship”.
130 people detained or missing
As of Tuesday, some 130 people were imprisoned or reported as missing, according to a list of names posted on Twitter by the protest movement San Isidro. Among those detained are José Daniel Ferrer, Manuel Cuesta Morua and Berta Soler, three of the country’s main dissidents, as well as Camila Acosta, a 28-year-old Cuban, according to the Madrid newspaper. ABC, with whom she had been collaborating for six months.
“Arrest a journalist from a Spanish media, ABC, seems inappropriate to me ”, reacted the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who called on Havana to respect the right of Cubans to “Demonstrate freely”.
While no official figure has been released concerning the arrests, families tried Tuesday to obtain information on their arrested relatives in the police stations of the capital, Agence France-Presse noted.
One dead and several injured
The Interior Ministry announced that a protester died on Monday in the popular Güinera neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, while taking part in the “Troubles”. Several people were injured.
Earlier, the Assistant Secretary of State of the United States for the Americas, Julie Chung, had denounced “The violence and arrests of Cuban demonstrators, as well as the disappearance of independent activists”, and asked “Their immediate release”.
On Tuesday, a YouTuber, Dina Stars, was arrested at her home by police while speaking live on a Spanish TV show.
Apparent calm reigned Tuesday in the capital, still under a strong police, military and civilian presence. But the mobile Internet, the engine of mobilizations, was still cut off. The specialized Netblocks observatory reported disruptions in Cuba on major social networks and communications platforms, such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
“It is true that we lack mobile Internet, but we also lack drugs”, replied Bruno Rodriguez to a question on this subject. And “I must say that Cuba is not going to give up the right to defend itself”.
Washington called for the speedy recovery of “All means of communication, online and offline”. “Close the information channels (…) does nothing to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Cuban people ”State Department spokesman Ned Price said. The United States has made it known, however, that it will not allow Cubans who attempt to flee their country in crisis by sea.
“I do not believe that we are on the verge of a bilateral crisis, unless the American government wants it”, said Bruno Rodriguez.
“The people have the right to express their needs”
On the island, Catholic bishops called on the government and protesters to “To get along” to avoid violence, while demonstrations turned into clashes with the police. While they highlighted the government’s efforts to deal with the economic crisis, “The people have the right to express their needs, their desires and their hopes”, they said in a statement.
The demonstrations, unprecedented since the 1959 revolution, angered the Communist government. “We will avoid revolutionary violence, but we will repress counter-revolutionary violence”, warned President Diaz-Canel on Monday. Several demonstrations by supporters of the regime took place on Sunday and then Monday, with sometimes violent clashes between the two camps.
A sign of the gravity of the situation, Raul Castro, 90, who had left the reins of the Communist Party (PCC, sole) in April to Miguel Diaz-Canel, had to come out of retirement. He attended a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Sunday in which “Were analyzed the provocations orchestrated by counter-revolutionary elements, organized and financed from the United States with destabilization objectives”, relayed the newspaper on Tuesday Granma.