The unprecedented July 11, 2021 protest in Havana and other cities surprised the Cuban government. Photo: AFP
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that this Monday, a year after the massive anti-government demonstrations that shook the country, what they will “celebrate” will be the “dismantling of a vandal coup”.
“What we will really celebrate as a first anniversary on July 11 is that the Cuban people and the Cuban Revolution have dismantled a vandalist coup,” said the president, closing the National Council of UNEAC, an organization of writers and artists on Friday evening. .
“Socialism has saved us from the pandemic, socialism has defeated the attempted vandal coup”, insisted Diaz-Canel.
“I am convinced that, by defending socialism, we will overcome the current difficult situation and defeat the imperialists,” he said, referring to the profound economic crisis that the island is experiencing. the worst of the last three decadesin the midst of the tightening of the embargo imposed by the United States for 60 years.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, in an act in favor of the Revolution in Havana, after last year’s protests. Photo: EFE
The demonstrations of 11 and 12 July 2021, the largest in 60 years of communist rule on the island, shook nearly 50 cities to the cry of “Freedom” and “We are hungry”.
Clashes with police resulted in one death, dozens injured and about 1,300 detainees, according to Cubalex, a Miami-based human rights NGO.
According to the Attorney General, 790 prisoners were prosecuted and 488 received a final sentence, many for the crime of sedition with sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
Government opponents called this week on social media to commemorate the date with new protests, but many of the voices that made themselves known with last year’s mobilizations they had to go into exile and some are in prison.
Others reported on Friday that they were warned by security officers not to leave their homes on 11 July.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested during last year’s July protests in Cuba. Photo: REUTERS
Another confrontation with the United States
The US Embassy in Havana on Saturday released a statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Washington will apply visa restrictions to 28 Cuban officials “who are involved in cracking down on the peaceful protests of July 11, 2021”.
“These officials have allowed or facilitated violent and unfair arrests, mock trials and prison sentences for decades for hundreds of protesters,” the text states.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reacted immediately on his Twitter account.
“Faced with the failure of the attempt to provoke a popular uprising in #Cuba in 2021, the US government and its Secretary of State are now trying to discredit popular triumph in the face of imperialist aggression,” Rodríguez said, adding. that “his repeated coercive measures are acts that violate international law and the Charter of the United Nations”.
An article on the subject published in the latest issue of the Communist Party newspaper, grandmother, he adds, for his part, that the events of July were part of it a White House plan to destabilize the country.
“It was a real shock therapy aimed at discouraging any resolution of resistance and breaking the faith of the Cubans,” according to the comment.
The same text supports the Cubans’ “right, duty and tradition” to “defend” the Revolution.
Source: AFP and EFE
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Source: Clarin
