CrimsonPhantom
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RE: Mass protests break out in 5 cities in Cuba over the poor socialize medical system
Cuba Cracking Down On Demonstrations; Dissidents Say Police ‘Arresting, Beating, And Killing’ Protesters
Quote:Cuba’s dictatorial government is reportedly cracking down on massive, pro-democracy demonstrations, with dissidents and allies now saying that Cuban police are “arresting, beating, and killing” protesters.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Cuban police are “beefing up” patrols, allegedly at the behest of Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who has made clear he will respond to the pro-democracy movement with force. An internet blackout, however, has descended on the country, making stories of Cuban officials’ response to the protests difficult to confirm, the AP noted.
“Authorities appeared determined to put a stop to the demonstrations. More than a dozen protesters were detained, including a leading Cuban dissident who was arrested trying to attend a march in the city of Santiago, 559 miles (900 kilometers) east. The demonstrators disrupted traffic in the capital for several hours until some threw rocks and police moved in and broke them up,” the AP reported. “Internet service was spotty, possibly indicating an effort to prevent protesters from communicating with each other.”
“On Monday, Cuban authorities were blocking Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram said Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, a London-based internet monitoring firm,” according to the AP.
“We’ve seen how the campaign against Cuba was growing on social media in the past few weeks,″ Díaz-Canel said late Monday, defending the government’s decision to throttle Internet service. “That’s the way it’s done: Try to create inconformity, dissatisfaction by manipulating emotions and feelings.”
Diaz-Canal has his own access to social media; he remains on Twitter giving official government updates on the situation on the ground in Cuba.
Florida media outlets report that dissidents have been using SMS messaging services to get video and narrative about the protests out of the island nation. One South Florida resident told Miami’s Local 10 news that “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.”
Video posted to social media, often through intermediaries in the United States, seems to confirm reports that Cuban police are engaging in a violent crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrations.
The videos are shocking, though because of the blackout, they remain unconfirmed.
Reuters was able to confirm, 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 is unknown, UNPACU activist Zaqueo Baez” told the news organization. “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.”
They are also sending videos confirming that the protests are still going on, regardless of what the official Cuban government says is happening.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), has been instrumental in sharing videos of the protests.
The protests reportedly began on Sunday, after days of increasing COVID-19 infections, alongside food and medicine shortages.
Communist Cuba: AP Journalist Beaten, Bloodied By Police While Covering Freedom Protests
Quote:
A photojournalist from the Associated Press was beaten by officers in Communist Cuba while he covered the freedom protests this weekend.
While capturing images of the protest against the regime from Havana, Ramon Espinosa was accosted by Cuban police officers on Sunday and left bloodied.
Photos from fellow journalists captured the attack, Business Insider reported:
AP photographer Ramon Espinosa can be seen in a photo taken by AFP photographer Adalberto Roque on Sunday struggling with a police officer while surrounded by a group of people.
Another photo, also taken by Roque, showed Espinosa with injuries covering his face and a camera still in his hand. Roque wrote that Espinosa was “attacked” by police during the demonstrations.
Cubans took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the repressive communist regime, demanding their freedom.
The New York Times called the demonstrations “astonishing.”
“In a country known for repressive crackdowns on dissent, the rallies were widely viewed as astonishing,” the Times report said. “Activists and analysts called it the first time that so many people had openly protested against the Communist government since the so-called Maleconazo uprising, which exploded in the summer of 1994 into a huge wave of Cubans leaving the country by sea.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a Cuban American, spoke about the protests on Monday, emphasizing the failure of socialism and communism.
“In 62 years of communist tyranny on the island of Cuba, we have never seen, there’s never been, what now is up to 40 cities in which people took to the streets organically, unorganized, grassroots, to ask for the end of that tyranny,” Rubio said.
“The first lesson we need to take away from it is that Marxism, socialism, doesn’t work,” the senator asserted. “The way socialism, the way Marxism has always worked, the way it’s always empowered itself, is it goes to the people and immediately divides them. It says there is an oppressor class and that there is this victim class and these evil oppressors, capitalists, in the case of socialism or traditional Marxism, they oppress the victims.”
“Socialism and Marxism have done in Cuba what it has done everywhere in the world that it’s been tried,” Rubio stated. “It has failed. It has failed. They gave up their freedom, or they were told, ‘Give up your freedom in exchange for a world-class health care system.’ It’s not a world-class health care system. In fact, it’s a health care system that does not even have the ability to deal with COVID at its very basic level.”
“[The Cuban government] says, ‘Give up your freedom for economic security.’ What economic security? People are hungry; homes are crumbling,” continued the Republican. “There is no economy. There is no real economy in Cuba. ‘Give up your freedom and you’ll have an education. Free education for everybody.’ That education, number one, you’re a doctor. You can drive a taxi cab in Cuba and make more money. Or number two, you get sent, forced, to go overseas and work basically on slave wages, no pay — barely any pay at all.”
Rubio Says ‘Twitter.Gov’ Would Be Consistent By Canceling ‘Marxist Socialist Dictators’ Who Incite Violence
Quote:Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) noted that if “Twitter.gov” plans on continuing to block American politicians, they ought to likewise block socialist dictators who inflict violence upon their own people.
“I am not in favor of @twitter blocking anybody,” said Rubio on Tuesday morning. “But if @twitter.gov is going to block American politicians, activists & even a U.S. President they should also block Marxist Socialist dictators who incite street violence.”
Rubio noted that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel — who leads a regime that has reportedly killed several citizens in response to widespread protests — is permitted to freely use Twitter.
“Our action in the streets is against those who promote disorder with an interventionist agenda, manipulating the feelings of the people for the deficiencies and outbreaks of COVID-19,” tweeted the official.
“The counterrevolution aspires for a war between Cubans,” he said in another post. “We are not going to indulge them. We will avoid this with unity, discipline, and work.”
In the wake of the January 6 riots, Twitter permanently banned sitting United States President Donald Trump due to the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter explained in a statement. “In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.”
Beyond the Cuban regime, Twitter also permits the Chinese Embassy to the United States — which has repeatedly denied the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang — on its platform.
‘The Cuban People Will Be Free’: Congressman Introduces Resolution To Support Cuban Protests, Only Republicans Sign On
Quote:Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) introduced a resolution to support the Cuban people in their demands for freedom against “the brutal oppression of the Communist dictatorship in Cuba.”
Díaz-Balart — a Cuban-American — asked the international community to stand behind the recent protests against the island’s regime. Initial cosponsors for the House resolution include Steve Scalise (R-LA), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Greg Steube (R-FL), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Liz Cheney (R-WY).
According to Díaz-Balart’s statement:
For 62 years, the Cuban people have struggled for freedom and human rights under a brutal, repressive dictatorship. On this day, which also coincides with the anniversary of the Tugboat Massacre, we also remember the regime’s decades of malevolence, including the Brothers to the Rescue Shoot-Down, the firing squads, torture, arbitrary arrests, killings, human trafficking, those who fled in makeshift rafts through shark-infested waters, and the many activists who have suffered or perished for simply daring to speak against the regime. The Cuban people will be free, and they will remember those who stood with them.
Under the resolution — entitled “Expressing solidarity with the Cuban people in their demands for freedom and respect for basic human rights” — the House of Representatives:
Calls for the release of all political prisoners and for the end of acts of repression, arbitrary imprisonments, torture, and other human rights abuses against the Cuban people;
Honors the courageous Cuban people for daring to stand up to the Cuban regime and demanding respect for fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of expression and assembly;
Recognizes the brave pro-democracy and human rights activists, including independent journalists, artists, labor leaders, and religious leaders, who have been persecuted throughout decades of Communist tyranny;
Urges other democracies, regional and multilateral organizations to affirm that violence against the unarmed people of Cuba will not be tolerated and that human rights abusers will be held accountable for their crimes;
Expresses solidarity with the long-suffering Cuban people in their demands for a genuine democratic transition; and
Calls on the international community to stand with those struggling for freedom in Cuba by condemning repression and expressing unequivocal support for their rights to self-governance, human rights, and basic liberties.
Other Cuban-American lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to explicitly support the Cuban people in their protests against the regime.
In a Monday letter to President Biden, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote:
The Cuban dictatorship has rejected every effort that would allow the Cuban people to prosper, including your previous efforts as Vice President. Despite the Obama Administration’s efforts to engage with the regime, the dictatorship continues to restrict travel for political opponents, siphon off the salaries of Cubans employed at foreign firms and severely limit the economic freedom of its citizens to own property and start a business. The current protests in Cuba are not just about current economic shortages. They are about the longstanding and deliberate actions taken by the dictatorship to stymy the economic prosperity and political freedom of the Cuban people.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) — a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs — encouraged the ten Cuban-American members of Congress to “work with the Biden Administration to push for democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and rid the island nation of the dual currency and economic systems that have inhumanely suppressed the Cuban people, leading to poverty, starvation, and poor living conditions.”
15 Woke Hollywood Celebrities Who Hobnobbed, Vacationed, Promoted Movies in Communist Cuba
Cuba: 90-Year-Old Raúl Castro Resurfaces to Silence Protests
Quote:The Communist Party of Cuba trotted out 90-year-old Raúl Castro – the nation’s ultimate leader despite his official retirement – on Monday, claiming he participated in a Politburo meeting on the protests hitting the island on Sunday.
Cubans in at least 20 localities around the island organized peaceful manifestations on Sunday believed to have attracted thousands of people. Many marched chanting “freedom!” and slogans in opposition to communism. The immediate response from the Communist Party was violence; Cubans have uploaded multiple videos to social media appearing to show police officers opening fire on crowds of protesters, beating them with batons on the streets, and arresting and disappearing participants in the protests. Manifestations continued throughout Monday but the regime shut down access to the internet nearly across the country, preventing Cubans from sharing breaking news from the island outside of encrypted messages and some isolated images.
The official Communist Party newspaper, Granma, and state television claimed that Castro participated in the meeting alongside President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who Castro hand-picked to be the face of the Party. Cuba experts consider Castro and his extended family the ultimate bosses in Cuba, however, as many hold high-ranking military and Party positions and Raúl Castro himself still resurfaces for events the Party deems important enough.
Granma did not describe the meeting as an “emergency” gathering but gave the impression that it was an urgent attempt to organize a response to the protests. The meeting reportedly occurred on Sunday, but was the lead story on Granma‘s online homepage on Tuesday morning.
“During the meeting, the provocations orchestrated by counterrevolutionary elements, organized and financed from the United States with destabilizing purposes, were analyzed,” Granma reported.
Granma offered no other information. It published no images that would prove that the nonagenarian dictator was present at the meeting. While its front-page headline promised video content, the video was a news report by communist media featuring only an anchor sitting at a desk and reporting that the meeting had occurred.
Prominently advertising Castro’s involvement in decisionmaking surrounding the protests appears to be a response to the outsized attention the protests have given Díaz-Canel. A longtime Communist Party lackey, Díaz-Canel first became president of the country in 2018. The Cuban constitution states that the president of the country is outranked by the Chairman of the Communist Party of Cuba and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Castro held all three titles before giving Díaz-Canel the presidency, remaining his boss. At the time, Díaz-Canel promised Castro would “preside over all major decisions for the present and future of the nation.”
Castro claimed to have retired in April 2021, giving Díaz-Canel the title of chairman of the Party. His public return indicates, however, that Díaz-Canel still lacks ultimate authority in the country.
Protests continued – and, reportedly, intensified – on Monday. The few images surfacing show severely injured unarmed protesters. One video appeared to show an unconscious man bleeding to death on the street while bystanders attempting to wrap the gunshot wound in his head with cloth to save him. Amnesty International has confirmed 115 arrests as of Tuesday, many of them of prominent members of the Cuban dissident community who have been subject to routine arbitrary detentions for decades.
Cubalex, an independent human rights group, documented over 150 people either missing or in police custody without being accused of a crime as of Tuesday and continues to update its database in real time.
The U.S.-based Martí News reported on Tuesday that the Communist Party had deployed motorized gangs to attack the protests – a staple repressive tactic of Cuba’s colony, Venezuela.
The violence followed a direct order from Díaz-Canel, issued in a televised speech, late on Sunday to “revolutionaries” to take the streets and attack peaceful protesters. Díaz-Canel called it an “order of combat” against “counterrevolutionaries” and explicitly urged violence.
On Monday, Díaz-Canel posted another call to violence on Twitter.
“The Cuban Revolution will not turn the other cheek to those who attack it, in both virtual and real-life spaces,” Díaz-Canel wrote, an apparent rebuke of Christian doctrine. The Communist Party is explicitly atheist and has regularly persecuted Christians of all denominations since 1959. The Castro regime actively persecuted Christians in the 1960s by placing them in the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), labor camps for “undesirables” and “counterrevolutionaries.” Several of those arrested and beaten on Sunday and Monday are members of Christian clergy.
“Let us avoid revolutionary violence but we will repress counterrevolutionary violence,” Díaz-Canel’s statement on Twitter continued. “Whoever attacks the agents of order attacks the country.”
Despite the call to “repression,” Díaz-Canel’s tweet remains available on that platform at press time.
Granma reported on Monday that, following the Politburo meeting and call to violence, Díaz-Canel held a Party meeting on Monday to discuss several unrelated topics, apparently ignoring the protests. Among them was the failing Cuban power grid and its fully collapsed socialist healthcare system.
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