Thousands of Cubans have joined the biggest protests in decades against the communist government. Pictures on social media show that security forces beat and detained some protesters.
They have marched to the cities, including the capital Havana, chanting and shouting against the so-called dictatorial government and demanding independence. Cubans are outraged by the economic downturn, the suppression of freedom and civil rights, and the way officials in the country are dealing with the Corona disaster.
The protesters want the immunization program to be expedited after Cuba reported more than 7,000 Corona cases a day and at least 47 deaths last Sunday.
Last year, the Cuban economy, which is largely controlled by the government, fell by 11 percent, the worst in the country over the past three decades. The economy is said to have been hit hard by the Corona catastrophe and by US sanctions against the nation.
Thousands of government supporters also marched after the president urged them to defend the coup, highlighting the 1959 liberation struggle that led to the Communist regime in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz Canel has said the protests are a provocation from mercenaries who claim to have been hired by the United States to destabilize the nation.
Addressing the nation on television, President Canel said orders to start a street fight had been issued to revolutionaries to protect the nation. Senior US diplomat in Latin America Julie Chung wrote on her Twitter page that they were deeply concerned about the call for the fight, adding that they supported Cubans who wanted to protest peacefully but at the same time called for calm and condemned the violence. any kind.
One of the protesters, who identified himself to the BBC as Geovanis Gonzalez, said they could no longer endure the hardships of life as they had no food, medicine, or freedom. '' We are here because of protesting against oppression. They deprive us of food so that we can die. They have not collapsed. We are homeless, we have nothing but they have the money to build hotels and we are starving "
Anti-government protests began in San Antonio de Los Banos southwest of the capital Havana but soon spread across the country. People used social media to broadcast the protest live, with protesters strongly criticizing the president.
