One reported deaths in anti-government protests in Cuba

The Cuban government has not said how many people were arrested or injured in the riots.

These are the most important protests on the island in decades, as Cubans complained about a lack of food and medicine as the country suffers a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and US sanctions .

In San Antonio de los Banos, a city of about 46,000 people west of Havana, hundreds of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday, fed up after nearly a week of power outages during the sweltering July heat.

“Everyone was on the street,” a resident, who did not want to be named, told CNN. “It’s been six days with only 12 hours of power each day. That was one of the things that exploded that.”

In a televised speech on national television later Sunday, President Diaz-Canel blamed U.S. trade sanctions for communist-led economic problems on the island.

Diaz-Canel also urged his supporters to physically confront the protesters. “The order to fight has been given,” he said at the end of his appearance, “the revolutionaries must be on the street.”

Detained journalist

Acosta, the detained journalist, writes in the ABC newspaper in Madrid, the Spanish capital.

ABC reported that she was arrested Monday morning in Havana when she left her home. Later, Cuban security guards searched her home and took her computer, she said. Hours earlier, he had reported on Sunday on anti-government demonstrations in the Cuban capital.

It is not the first time Acosta has had a meeting with Cuban authorities to do his job as a journalist, ABC said.

The newspaper said his arrest is “completely unacceptable.” She also demanded the “immediate release of Acosta and the return of all professional material taken from her home,” as well as the withdrawal of charges against her for alleged crimes against the security of the Cuban state.

An ABC editor confirmed to CNN that Acosta is a Cuban national and has been working for the newspaper for about six months.

Spanish Foreign Minister Albares called for his immediate release in a tweet, saying that “Spain defends the right to free and peaceful demonstrations and calls on the Cuban authorities to respect it. We defend human rights.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has warned the Cuban government not to reprimand its defiant citizens. But on Monday, at another long televised government meeting, Cuban President Diaz-Canel said the protesters were criminals.

“They stoned the police force, caused damage to cars,” he said. “Completely vulgar, completely indecent behavior.”

Meanwhile, US-Cuba relations are at their lowest point in recent years. The Trump administration enacted some of the toughest economic measures against Cuba in decades, and so far the Biden administration seems reluctant to lift them.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday called on the Cuban government to show restraint and stop its shutdown on the Internet.

In Miami, the center of the Cuban community of exiles in the United States, protesters have taken to the streets in support of anti-government protesters. On Tuesday, some protesters closed parts of the Palmetto Highway, according to Lt. Alex Camacho of the Florida Highway Patrol.

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a statement urging Cubans on the island “not to go to sea,” noting that “dangerous and unforgivable” traffic through the Florida Strait has caused nearly 20 lives. in recent weeks, according to co-administrator Eric Jones, commander of Miami’s Seventh Coast Guard District.

The already struggling Cuban economy has been severely affected, as tourism and good imports have fallen sharply during the pandemic. On Sunday, Cuban health officials also reported a record one-day increase for new Covid-19 cases and deaths.

On Monday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador joined Cuban officials in calling on the U.S. to suspend the trade embargo on Cuba as a humanitarian gesture. “No country in the world should be closed down, blocked, it is the opposite of human rights,” he said.

And U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken has rejected criticism from the Cuban government and said that “it would be a serious mistake for the Cuban regime to interpret what is happening in dozens of cities across the island as a result. or the product of anything the United States has done. “

“That’s what we hear and see in Cuba, and that’s a reflection of the Cuban people, not the United States or any other external actor,” Blinken said.