‘Grievous mistake’ for Cuba to suppose US prompted demonstrations, Blinken warns as Biden backs ‘exceptional’ protesters

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US President Joe Biden praised the protests in Cuba for demanding “freedom from an authoritarian regime,” as his Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied they have been in any method a product of Washington’s actions.

Havana has blamed the US for the protests that erupted throughout dozens of Cuban cities on Sunday. President Miguel Diaz-Canel mentioned on Monday that the persevering with US coverage of “financial suffocation” in opposition to the island nation has prompted shortages of meals and drugs and energy outages.

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Government supporters walk during protests against and in support of the government in Havana, Cuba July 11, 2021. © REUTERS/Stringer
Cuba’s president blames Washington for protests, says US sanctions answerable for shortages and ‘social unrest’

Chatting with reporters on the State Division on Monday afternoon, nonetheless, Blinken mentioned “it might be a grievous mistake for the Cuban regime to interpret what is occurring in dozens of cities and cities throughout the island because the end result or product of something the US has accomplished.” 

Washington put Cuba beneath a commerce embargo in 1958, after revolutionaries overthrew the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. 

As Blinken was chatting with reporters, Biden himself made a press release in regards to the “exceptional” protests, calling on the Cuban authorities “to chorus from violence and the makes an attempt to silence the voice of the folks.”

He additionally echoed the assertion issued earlier within the day by the White Home and posted on his presidential twitter account, which spoke of Cubans “bravely asserting elementary and common rights” that should be revered and calling on the “regime” in Havana “to listen to their folks and serve their wants at this important second fairly than enriching themselves.”

White Home press secretary Jen Psaki had described it as a press release “we put out within the president’s title this morning, in his voice after all,” elevating some eyebrows amongst Republicans.

The Obama administration, by which Biden was vice chairman, moved to chill out a few of the restrictions in opposition to Cuba, culminating within the reopening of embassies in 2015. Most of those measures have been reversed by President Donald Trump in November 2017, nonetheless. Not like many Trump administration insurance policies revoked by Biden since he took workplace in January, these sanctions in opposition to Cuba stay in impact.

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