Protests in Cuba: more than 100 people arrested or missing after rare protests, activists say

These are the biggest protests on the island in decades, with Cubans complaining of a lack of food and medicine as the country goes through a severe economic crisis made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and US sanctions .

In San Antonio de los Banos, a town of about 46,000 people west of Havana, hundreds of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday, tired after nearly a week of blackouts during the sweltering heat of July.

“Everyone was on the streets,” one resident, who did not want to be named, told CNN. “They spent six days on just 12 hours of feeding a day. That’s one of the things that blew it up.”

In a nationally televised address later Sunday, President Díaz-Canel blamed the US trade sanctions on the economic woes of the Communist-ruled island.

Díaz-Canel also urged his supporters to physically confront the protesters. “The order to fight is given”, he declared at the end of his appearance, “the revolutionaries must be in the street”.

Detained journalist

Acosta, the detained journalist, writes for ABC newspaper in Madrid, the Spanish capital.

ABC reported that she was arrested Monday morning in Havana as she left her home. Cuban security officers later searched his home and took his computer, he added. Hours earlier, she had reported on anti-government protests in the Cuban capital on Sunday.

This is not the first time Acosta has clashed with Cuban authorities for doing his job as a journalist, ABC said.

The newspaper said his arrest is “totally unacceptable”. He also called for “the immediate release of Acosta and the return of all professional equipment taken from her home”, as well as the dropping of the charges against her for alleged crimes against the security of the Cuban state.

An ABC editor confirmed to CNN that Acosta was of Cuban nationality and had worked for the newspaper for about six months.

Spanish Foreign Minister Albares demanded his immediate release in a tweet, saying that “Spain defends the right to free and peaceful demonstrations and calls on the Cuban authorities to respect it. We defend human rights.”

US President Joe Biden has warned the Cuban government not to crack down on its new rebellious citizens. But on Monday, in another lengthy televised government meeting, Cuban President Díaz-Canel said the protesters were criminals.

“They stoned the police force, damaged cars,” he said. “Completely vulgar, completely indecent behavior.”

Meanwhile, US-Cuban relations are at their lowest in years. The Trump administration has adopted some of the toughest economic measures against Cuba in decades, and so far the Biden administration seems reluctant to lift them.

The already struggling Cuban economy has been hit hard, as tourism and good imports fell sharply during the pandemic. Cuban health authorities also reported a record single-day increase in new cases and deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday.

On Monday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador joined Cuban officials in calling on the United States to end the trade embargo on Cuba as a humanitarian gesture. “No country in the world should be locked up, blocked, it is the opposite of human rights,” he said.

And US Secretary of State Tony Blinken rebuffed criticism of the Cuban government, saying that “it would be a grave mistake for the Cuban regime to interpret what is happening in dozens of towns on the island as the result or the product of anything. the United States did. “

“This is what we hear and see in Cuba, and it is a reflection of the Cuban people, not the United States or any other outside actor,” Blinken said.