As the world watches leaked footage of the situation in Cuba, the government has reportedly begun to turn violent toward the people protesting for freedom from the communist regime. During the government crackdown on these pro-democracy protests, reports have come out of the demonstrations that the government has now begun arresting, beating, and in some cases even killing dissidents. All this comes as the Cuban president has stated these demonstrations will be met with force.
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has instructed this crackdown, and as the movement has grown, ordered the Cuban police to “beef up” their efforts to combat the rise of this public outcry in response to food and medicine shortages. The regime has even gone as far as to block the internet and access to such websites like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.
“We’ve seen how the campaign against Cuba was growing on social media in the past few weeks,″ Díaz-Canel said late Monday, defending his government’s decision to cut off access to these Internet services. “That’s the way it’s done: Try to create inconformity, dissatisfaction by manipulating emotions and feelings.” The Associated Press reported.
Miami Local 10 News reported that residents of Miami were receiving texts from friends in marches containing videos of the government’s violent response to the protests. One Miami resident said, “his friend in Havana sent him text messages asking him to tell friends in Miami that Cuban police officers were arresting, beating, and killing unarmed civilians.”
Videos posted to social media look as if they confirm these reports of the authorities cracking down on dissidents at the direction of President Díaz-Canel. Some videos show the inhumane treatment of the protesters as tensions between the two groups begin to rise.
Reuters has also confirmed, Monday, that “high-level dissidents” have been arrested and that their whereabouts are currently unknown.
“Jose Daniel, the leader of Cuba’s largest opposition group, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), was arrested as he left home to join the protest in Santiago de Cuba in the east of the country on Sunday. His whereabouts are unknown, UNPACU activist Zaqueo Baez” told Reuters. “Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Amaury Pacheco, two members of a dissident artists’ collective that has made headlines spearheading a broader protest movement in Cuba in recent years, were arrested on their way to protest in Havana, Pacheco’s partner Iris Ruiz told Reuters. Otero Alcantara was in jail while Pacheco’s whereabouts were unknown.”
President Biden made a statement on Monday where he showed support for the demonstrators but failed to condemn the actual ideologies, one promoted by his own party members, that have led to such a situation.
“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 U.S. urges the Cuban government to serve their people rather than enriching themselves,” Biden added.
Other American politicians have also spoken out against this demonstration of Marxism as well as the statement made by Biden, such as Florida Senator, Marco Rubio.
These actions of the dictatorial regime are sure to further fuel divide and dissent in the country bringing into question how this situation will play out. It is the ruthlessness of the communist party and the desire of the people to be free that is on full display for the whole world to see. Unfortunately, as is most often the case in clashes with a communist dictatorship, it is the civilians that will end up paying the ultimate price.
As Americans look on at the calamity that has taken hold of the island nation, our own nation sees protests that seem to have the roles reversed. Instead of the government pushing to keep up with the Communist status quo, it is protestors that protest for the adoption of socialism and ultimately communism in the land of the free.
Images have surfaced of protestors flying American flags as well as their own homeland’s flags as they continue to march through streets all over the nation. Signaling the people urn for an American-style democracy to bless their country. With such dictatorial systems in place, one can only hope that one day the Cuban people will become free of the shackles of communism.
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