Thousands of Cubans marched in the streets on Sunday to protest the lack of food and medicine as the country suffers from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic struggles.
During a rare showing of dissent, demonstrators shouted “Freedom” and other anti-government chants, including calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, as they protested against government restrictions and a deteriorating economic situation, worsened by the virus and U.S. sanctions.
Protests were seen in multiple cities across the country and protesters were met with arrests and tear gas.
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Videos on social media show thousands of people marching in the streets, shouts from Cubans going hungry, with others overturning police cars. A heavy police presence appeared in Havana ahead of hundreds who gathered there.
In other videos, people shouted that they wanted access to coronavirus vaccines.
In a televised address, Diaz-Canel said U.S. sanctions were creating economic hardships, stating that the “order to combat has been given.”
“Revolutionaries need to be on the streets,” the president added.
In a statement obtained by McClatchy on Monday, President Joe Biden said the U.S. stands with the people of Cuba and supports them, calling the protests a “clarion call for freedom and relief” from the pandemic and generations of dictatorship.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said. “The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”
U.S.-Cuba relations are at some of their lowest in years following some of the toughest restrictions put in place by former President Donald Trump. The country is also suffering from a lack of tourism and imports, which have been affected by the pandemic.
