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Cuba intends to prosecute protesters involved in the youth-led protests that broke out earlier this month that were seen as a historic challenge to the communist regime in Havana.
Predictably, Cuba took swift action to stem the unrest and seems intent on making examples of these detainees. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that there are hundreds of protesters unaccounted for and they have not been in contact with their families. They could be in jail for months or years before even being charged and could face a 15-year prison sentence.
“Some demonstrators have been released, but those who are seen as influential or more visible aren’t going anywhere,” Danelis Iglesias, the wife of Cuban rapper Adrian “El Radikal” Zamora, told the paper.
As we have reported in our 13 June issue, in an article titled, “CUBA: HISTORIC PROTESTS AMID ECONOMIC CRISIS,” thousands of Cubans took to the streets to call on the country’s government to be dissolved and for more freedoms amid a new outbreak of COVID-19. The stunning protests rattled Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who initially ordered “revolutionaries” into the street to counter the demonstrators.
Most of the 500 protesters who have been nabbed are young Cubans. (SEE: “TOP TREND: YOUTH REVOLUTION.”)
Diaz-Canel has focused blame for the country’s dire conditions squarely on the U.S. embargo and also says Washington has supported the protesters. One official from Cuba’s Interior Ministry said it is convinced that “behind these events is the hand of the enemy.”
Critics of the Biden administration say it has been slow in supporting the protesters, and have called the U.S. to provide internet access to the island during its shoddy connection after the demonstrations. It is assumed that Biden is trying to strike a balance between the progressive wing of the Democrat Party that is more sympathetic to the Cuban regime and critical of the U.S. embargo. Biden announced last week that he plans to sanction regime officials, which is in reality more words than deeds, since it will have little impact on the nation’s people and their economy.
The U.S. took aim at Alvaro Lopez, the Cuban defense minister for playing an “integral role in the repression of ongoing protests in Cuba. The sanctions prevent Lopez from taking payments from entities in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the sanctions are intended as more of a “message” and said the “target officials aren’t likely to travel to the U.S. and are unlikely to have accounts in the U.S. financial system.”
Biden said in a statement obtained by the Trends Journal that said: “This is just the beginning—the United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the “actions of Cuban security forces and violent mobs mobilized by Cuban Communist Party First Secretary Miguel Diaz-Canel lay bare the regime’s fear of its own people and unwillingness to meet their basic needs and aspirations.”
He said the U.S. stands with the Cubans “seeking a government that respects the human rights and dignity of the Cuban people.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also said in a statement that the “Cuban people are protesting for the fundamental and universal rights they deserve from their government.”
“Treasury will continue to enforce its Cuba-related sanctions, including those imposed today, to support the people of Cuba in their quest for democracy and relief from the Cuban regime,” she said.
TOP TREND FOR 2021: “YOUTH REVOLUTION”: As we had forecast in December 2020, in 2021, the uprisings and revolutions that were sweeping the world before the COVID War will accelerate dramatically, as billions of people sink deeper into economic despair. And that is precisely the motivation and reality of what is going on in Cuba.
In response, governments will again attempt to use the COVID War as a “legal” justification to prohibit protests. But, as Gerald Celente says, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” And lose it, they will. Thus, we maintain our forecast that protests will escalate into civil wars, and civil wars will spread to regional wars.