As protests and unrest stir within the Cuban people the Cuban government has summoned the US ambassador, Benjamin Ziff, to its foreign ministry. These officials allege that the US government is behind the protest that flooded the streets of Cuba’s second biggest city, Santiago de Cuba, with hundreds of people. Rioting against the communist government that runs the island, the majority of protesters were parents who couldn’t feed their kids as the nation faced a food crisis.
Their message was simple, “Without electricity and food, the people get hot.”
With power to homes cut off for up to 18 hours per day, it is increasingly difficult for people to keep their food fresh and safe for eating, if they can even find it. With the problems being felt across the island nation, El Cobre and Bayamo had similar-sized protests, and smaller ones in Santa Marta as well as the city of Matanzas.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Cuba issued a tweet asking the Cuban government to let the protests go as a part of human rights and to answer to the real needs of the Cuban people. As state-ran bodegas are criminally out of rice, beans, salt, sugar, coffee, and, crucially, baby milk, people resort to buying from private suppliers. With people getting an average of $10 a month in state salary, these products are usually priced well outside their budgets.
Beatriz Johnson, the first secretary of Santiago’s communist party, told the crowd in her city that the State was assembling a “food basket” for their people filled with rice and sugar as well as other provisions. Given the July 2021 governmental response of telling people to take up arms and stand up for the revolution, they also blamed the US for these protests.
Cuba is just another in the laundry list of failed communist states across the world. As everyday citizens on the island try to find a way out from under the oppressive regime, far too many are afraid to speak out. Until something major changes, the problems will only worsen for the Cuban people.
