“We need the internet for Cuba”: the statement from Miami to Washington

Miamiians continue in the streets to demonstrate alongside Cubans who are on the island in the face of the repression of the dictatorial regime.

In the town of Hialeah (the second largest city in Miami-Dade County and the city with the highest concentration of Cubans outside of Cuba), hundreds of people gathered shouting “Freedom”, many of them are calling for US military intervention in Cuba.

Today, a small, very vocal group made up mostly of Cuban Americans approached the mayor of the city of Miami for, among other things,, ask the United States to find a way to provide internet to the island of Cuba, where the authorities of the dictatorship they’ve shut down the Internet since the city took to the streets.

“We need them to find a way to bring the internet to the island. They are killing our loved ones and the world must know what is happening on the island“, said the actress in front of the press Claudia valdez, one of the people who called for the protest.

The mayor Francois Suarez met a group of Cuban Americans. After the meeting, with the demonstrators, he addressed the press. Quoting Martin Luther King, injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. It’s not a Cuban problem, it’s a global problem, ”said Suárez, who also had a very specific request from the US federal government.

“We ask the President of the United States to come to Miami and explain in detail what can and cannot be done to help the Cuban people.”, He affirmed, to the applause of those present, while confirming that he had talks with technological entrepreneurs to see how Cuba can be endowed with the Internet.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited Miami-Dade County again on Thursday. From the city of Miami Lakes, along with local politicians, he joined the Internet demand for the island. “The Communists fear the truth more than anything else,” DeSantis said, while assuring that although it will not be overnight, The United States has the technological capacity to provide the Internet to Cuba.

The Cuban-American community, in all its manifestations in South Florida, wants to make it clear that Cubans are not asking for food or medicine, and the idea that they have taken to the streets due to the economic and health crisis of COVID 19 is false. As we hear in the streets of Cuba, the message is that the demand is for freedom and the end of the 62-year dictatorship.

In the search for this freedom, the possibility of communicating between different parts of the country and showing what is happening in Cuba is essential. That is why the most specific request that is being made at the moment is that of the internet.

Although in the streets of Miami, the demand for military intervention is also frequently heard. Many fear that without the support of the US military, the unarmed people of Cuba will not be able to resist the dictatorship.

From Washington, after the brief statement sent on Monday, it is little has been said about the crisis in Cuba and whether the United States has any plans to help the civilian population of the island.

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