In Cuba, hundreds take to the streets in rare protests as economic crisis deepens

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NBC News

In Cuba, hundreds take to the streets in rare protests as economic crisis deepens

In widely circulated videos on social media, Cubans can be heard chanting, “We are hungry,” as well as calling for electricity and food.

March 18, 2024, 12:19 PM EDT
By Carmen Sesin

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets Sunday in Cuba’s second-largest city, Santiago, demanding food and power amid a worsening economic crisis that has left many everyday Cubans with scarce amounts of each. ... In widely circulated videos on social media, Cubans in Santiago, in the east, can be heard chanting, “We are hungry,” as well as calling for electricity and food. Some residents have experienced power outages for 18 hours a day or more.

While there have been occasional outbreaks of protests in the past few years, they are still rare on the tightly controlled, communist-run island. ... Videos circulated on social media also show protests in Bayamo, another city in the east.

Cuba has been grappling with a severe economic crisis with shortages in food, medicine, fuel and power. Inflation has risen sharply, making many products unaffordable for Cubans who depend on an average monthly state salary of $16. ... Cuba has been under punishing U.S. sanctions for decades, which the Cuban government largely blames for their economic woes. The country’s Soviet-style, centrally planned economy has also affected Cuba’s economy negatively, according to economists. ... Cuba recently took some austerity measures including a steep hike in the price of gasoline, which has left people nervous.

Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist and fellow at American University in Washington, D.C., said there is no quick fix for the problems Cuba is facing with lack of power, which requires the purchase of fuel, and the shortages in food, which the island mostly imports, unless one of its allies comes to its rescue with aid. ... “Cuba should be talking about how to move away from its centrally planned economy and towards a market economy,” Torres said. “Two or three economic measures only put a Band-aid on the problem.”

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-hundreds-take-streets-rare-protests-economic-crisis-deepens-rcna143871

[Marcus IM]

1. Choke them onto submission.

Cubans are protesting for more socialism - all of their requests are for more subsidized fuel and food.

Plus, the ave income stated is actually a basic income from the 1990's, and still not measuring the CUC conversion.

I'm sure that Miami led pro corporate "free market solutions" will work wonders.

[Marcus IM]

2. I'm sure we'll be seeing riot squads in combat gear cracking heads.

I am sure everyone has seen those cell phone vids of Cuban police that make NYPD riot cops look like school children. Kettling and cornering them only to gas and beat them before arrest.

These vids are everywhere. Oh ... wait ...

[EX500rider]

5. Right, cause it such a free Police State! lol

Human rights in Cuba are under the scrutiny of human rights organizations, which accuse the Cuban government of committing systematic human rights abuses against the Cuban people, including arbitrary imprisonment and unfair trials.

According to the report of Human Rights Watch from 2017 the government continues to rely on arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate critics, independent activists, political opponents, and others.

Amnesty International's 2017-2018 Annual Report also noted more arbitrary detentions, discriminatory layoffs by state agencies and harassments in self-employment with the aim of making them silent in criticism. Regarding any progress in education, Amnesty International reported that advances in education were undermined by ongoing online and offline censorship. Cuba remained mostly closed to independent human rights monitors

With regard to arbitrary arrests and detentions, the report added that human rights activists and political activists continued to be harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily detained in high numbers. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a Cuban NGO which is not officially recognized by the state, recorded 5,155 arbitrary detentions in 2017, in contrast to 9,940 in 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba

[Marcus IM]

6. Here, I made a thread for you to do some reporting from on the ground ...

I'm still waiting for the pics of Cuban jackboots cracking heads of the demonstrators demanding more socialism.

Ongoing demonstrations in Cuba. Post pics of Cuban jackboot thugs here
https://www.democraticunderground.com/110889207

[EX500rider]

7. You mean these guys?

[Marcus IM]

8. Ooooh. Scary. The beatings, The gassing. The kettllng and mass arrests. Buss transporting hundreds to jail for booking.

lol.

Of course, none of that happened.

BTW, those pics are not from the recent protests.
Note the Covid era masks on most pictured.
If HRW are saying those are from the weekend, then, they're misrepresenting the situation.

Funny how small numbers of Cubans protesting for more socialism by the hundreds gets their attention.

When in the greatest nation, we get scenes like this commonly ...

[EX500rider]

9. Well admit it or not, Cuba is a Police State according to HWR

CUBA
Human Rights Developments

The Cuban government continued to systematically deny its citizens the right to exercise their fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, association and assembly, the right to privacy and due process, and the right to travel. The guarantees written into Cuba's laws do more to hinder than to protect those rights. And in any event, Cuba lacks institutions independent of the government and the governing Communist Party that could ensure respect for basic rights. Although all Cubans are affected by the institutionalized suppression of civil and political rights by the 32-year-old military government of Fidel Castro, the target increasingly has been the fragile "civil society" that began to emerge in 1988 when international scrutiny of Cuba's human rights practices was at its height.

There is no free press in Cuba. All media are state-owned or state-controlled. Nothing is permitted to be published on government-controlled printing presses that is not "in keeping with the objectives of socialist society." Attempts by human rights and other independent activists to distribute newsletters, type-written and reproduced on carbon paper, have been relentlessly suppressed under the law against "clandestine printing."

Cuba is a one-party state. Opposition political parties and independent civic groups are illegal. Cubans are permitted to belong only to officially controlled "mass organizations," which serve as little more than a medium for them to demonstrate their "revolutionary integration." Rights advocacy groups have been repeatedly denied official recognition. Members of such groups are imprisoned for "illegal association."

Freedom of movement is restricted. Only Cubans over a certain age -- 40 for women and 45 for men (recently reduced from 50 and 55) -- are free to travel abroad and return to Cuba. Cubans apply to emigrate at the risk of losing their jobs, belongings, and homes. Those who try and fail to flee illegally by crossing the Florida straits on a boat or raft are imprisoned.

Cuba is also a police state that denies its citizens' right to privacy. Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), neighborhood surveillance groups, monitor and report on Cubans at home, at work and at school. The CDRs were created, according to the Cuban press, "with the sacred mission of defending the revolution and blocking the political action of its enemies." As part of this mission, they twice in 1990 organized huge mobs of people to gather at the homes of human rights monitors where meetings were being held, to chant slogans, yell insults and assault those who dared to leave, in a demonstration of their ostensibly spontaneous "repudiation" of "counterrevolutionaries." Cuba lacks an independent judiciary. The judicial branch is subordinate to the executive. In the courts, Cubans are defended by lawyers whose loyalty is to the state, not to their client. Judges upholding "socialist legality" enforce the will of the government. In addition, there is no independent legislature, and no legally recognized independent labor unions or other civic organizations.

https://www.hrw.org/reports/1990/WR90/AMER.BOU-05.htm

Yes, yes I know, all Miami slander, at least according to the DGI, (the Intelligence Directorate is the main state intelligence agency of the government of Cuba.) and you can trust those guys I am sure, right?

[Marcus IM]

10. Elizardo Sanchez is on Cubanet's payroll. Cubanet is an exile run anti-Cuba propaganda program funded by the IRI.

Most anti-Cuba aficionados are completely ahistorical and w/o any real knowledge of or experience in Cuba, or of the Miami based RW propaganda outlet Cubanet, which is nothing more than a branch of the extremist GOP. Always amazed when people present their google results w/o any knowledge of said subject nor it's sourcing.

Americans and Cubans are free to do so.

Now, for HRW to take Sanchez's paid-for opinions as fact, without any mention of who his employers are, is, well ... dishonest.
To produce anti-Cuba propaganda for Cubanet, Sanchez and a few others are paid $4000 US a month.
They are wealthy by Cuban standards. And, they have a motive for producing such propaganda. Money.

HRW (and AI) has no bureau in Cuba, and this "report" op/ed is from 1990 about a few 1980's incidents - mainly these incidents were about those who were working for Cubanet getting paid in US dollars were working as unregistered foreign agents. None of it is mentioned by HRW.

You want to refer to RW republican funded "reports" from extremist RW Cuban "exile" organizations, go ahead.

Anyway, please post the pics of the Cuban jackboot thugs beating, gassing, kettling, penning, and arresting some of those hundreds of protesters on the thread I posted.
I'm still waiting for the pics of Cuban jackboots cracking heads of the demonstrators demanding more socialism.
Thanks.

Ongoing demonstrations in Cuba. Post pics of Cuban jackboot thugs here
https://www.democraticunderground.com/110889207

[EX500rider]

12. OK, let me reword that, Cuba is a Police State according to everybody but you and the DGI

US State Dept:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/#:~:text=Cuba%20is%20an%20authoritarian%20state,of%20the%20role%20for%20president.

[Marcus IM]

14. LOL. Head in sand. Blinders on!

The official (American) party line: Cuba is a one party state.

It's easy to be ahistorical and unaware of the topic.
Easy to rely on simple fast google searches.
Not easy to dig a little deeper.

Political Parties:

Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) [Communist Party of Cuba]
Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba (PDC) [Christian Democratic Party of Cuba]
Partido Solidaridad Democrática (PSD) [Democratic Solidarity Party]
Partido Social Revolucionario Democrático Cubano [Cuban Social Revolutionary Democratic Party]
Coordinadora Social Demócrata de Cuba (CSDC) [Social Democratic Coordination of Cuba]
Unión Liberal Cubana [Cuban Liberal Union]

Links to parties here http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/cu.html

[EX500rider]

15. Yes nice window dressing

And yet the Communist Party of Cuba is the only party in control of the country for over 50 years

[Marcus IM]

16. In control?

lol.

See how easy it is to post ahistorical and under-informed comments?
And you are free to do so.

FYI,
The current Cuban National Assembly (the national parliament) is composed of less than 35% communist party members. The rest are independent parliamentarians.

No political party picks any slate of candidates in any Regional, Provincial, National Assembly candidate selection or election.

Anyone 17 years old and up can run for office - as long as they do not have a felony criminal record.

Candidates are selected by citizen votes in runoff elections.

No one running for office would ever espouse banning abortion, limiting gay rights, changing the constitution into a christian based constitution, privatization, foreign monetization, enslaving themselves to IMF loans and selling off their public infrastructures to banks and venture capitalists. They know it would be the ruination of their beautiful nation.

I lived there. Grew up there. I now live in the US. I am a registered Democratic voter. I espouse the ultimate goals of the Democratic Party ... universal healthcare for all, universal education for all.

Like Cuba has.

Any more quick and factless google results for us?

[EX500rider]

19. We can believe you or Human Rights Watch & the US State Department

It's amazing how Castro won all those elections for like 50 or 60 years huh?
😅

[Marcus IM]

21. Ahistorical again, I see.

Pretty much everything you post on this topic is.

My question is ... Why?

You don't even know the very basics, yet, here you are professing your shallow wisdom on this topic.

I welcome all comers who come to the table with the desire for pedagogy.

Here, for you edification ...

Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado (17 April 1919 – 23 June 1983) was a Cuban politician who served as the president of Cuba from 1959 to 1976.

After the success of the Revolution on 1 January 1959, Dorticós returned to Cuba.

In that capacity, he played an important role in drafting revolutionary legislation such as the Agrarian Reform Act and the Fundamental Organic Law that supplanted the Constitution of 1940. After the resignation of President Manuel Urrutia, Dorticós was appointed President of Cuba by the Council of Ministers on 17 July 1959.

As President, Dorticós represented Cuba at the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia (1961), and at the Summit of the Organisation of American States in Punta del Este, Uruguay (1962). During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Dorticós gave a speech at the United Nations in which he announced that Cuba possessed nuclear weapons, which it hoped would never be used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osvaldo_Dorticós_Torrado

[EX500rider]

24. Again window dressing

[70sEraVet]

3. I was just about to post something about how great if the US offered help....

especially after the US (under GW Bush) rejected Cuba's offer of doctors and medicine after Hurricane Katrina.
But looking it up, it seems that the US and Cuba have been rejecting each other's offers of assistance for decades, to the detriment of the citizens of both nations.
https://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/05/katrina.cuba/

[Marcus IM]

11. Please show us the times Cuba rejected assistance without conditions. Thanks.

Cuba's offers of assistance come without conditions.

The article you posted is about the American gov't rejecting the aid from Cuba's Henry Reeve Brigade of disaster recovery specialists.
Cuba has a beloved global following thanking Cuba for disaster assistance all over the world (except the US which rejects Cuba's offers).

You make a claim that it's both parties doing this. I'd love to see the evidence.

Thanks.

[70sEraVet]

17. These are the two paragraphs in the article concerning Cuba rejecting ....

aid offered by the US.

In the past, Cuba has refused U.S. offers of aid, the most recent following Hurricane Dennis. That storm killed more than 10 people in the Caribbean island nation in July.

At that time, Castro said he would not accept help from Washington because of the U.S. trade embargo against his country. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Cuba.
https://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/05/katrina.cuba/

I was surprised to learn that the US HAD offered aid to Cuba. I welcome the chance to learn something new.
My only point was, that it would be beneficial to both countries to work together as neighbors.

[Marcus IM]

18. Oh yeah. Thanks. I remember that. Relief aid should not be connected to political anti-government advocacy.

S Florida exile NGO's were writing anti-gov't messages on boxes and individual items intended for distribution in Cuba, which is, of course, f#cked up.

Now imagine the US accepting Cuban aid with anti American gov't messages spray painted and printed on said aid. Cubans in Cuba are decent people, and wouldn't do that. Their offers of aid were unconditional, and without adding insult to injury, as the Miami RW exiles do.

It's a sad case.

The RW Cuban exiles in Miami - who vote GOP/tRump, BTW - are behind the policies of extraterritorial sanction on their homeland ... on their own families. Understand this ... they do not have the interests of the Cuban people in Cuba at heart.

Again, it's a sad case.

Cuba, Citing Slogans, Rejects Some Hurricane Aid
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/03/world/cuba-citing-slogans-rejects-some-hurricane-aid.html

[70sEraVet]

20. Marcus IM! I found something that makes me MORE proud of Joe Biden!

The Biden administration is providing Cuba with $2 million in funding for emergency relief to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the State Department announced Tuesday.

The aid is in response to a rare request for emergency assistance Cuba’s government made last month, after the Category 3 hurricane plowed through the western part of the island.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/rare-move-us-offers-aid-cuba-help-hurricane-ian-recovery-efforts-rcna52876

This is from Oct 22, 2022.
I should have KNOWN that Joe would be a good neighbor!

[Marcus IM]

22. Yes. Now if he would start reversing back to the Obama admin's position ...

.. I hope he's not holding out thinking he's going to have S Florida Cuban "exiles" vote for him. They aren't.
According the RW Cuban "exile" diaspora, Joe Biden is a commie - just like the Qwackanoners say.

Thanks for the post.

[pfitz59]

4. Been 65 years since the revolution

time past to end the idiot embargo. Tourism bucks alone would feed the entire country.

[Marcus IM]

13. That is the goal of the US gov't banning US tourism travel to Cuba. All Caribbean island depend on US tourism.

There are a myriad of US sanctions in almost every avenue of trade and travel.

All designed specifically to destroy the economy of Cuba and then Americans turn around and blame their economic privations on communism.

It's unconscionable to engage in such policy, designed to make and entire nation suffer.
Collective punishment.
A violation of the Geneva Convention.

I appreciate your comments. Thank you.

[malaise]

23. The sabotage is unbearable

all in the name of hegemony

[Marcus IM]

25. Meanwhile, NRA dark money pours in, and the stacks of bodies rise up to the heavens.

But, Cuba is bad and dangerous because they don't want Americanism, only to trade on a fair playing field.

Seems too much to ask.

If there is police activity in Cuba or Venezuela, the RW/US media terms them "Castro's thugs" (now Diaz-Canal's thugs), "Mauro's thugs" etc.
So, does that mean that when we have stacks of bodies from police actions here we should call them Biden's thugs?

Whack conversation we have over Cuba. Utterly whacked.

US cops have filled 525 body bags in the first 76 days of 2024
https://incarcernation.com/us-cops-have-filled-525-body-bags-in-the-first-76-days-of-2024/

[malaise]

27. Same crap here

We don't manufacture these guns and neither does Haiti

[Marcus IM]

29. There is a place where the transshipments originate. I'll let you guess ...

Strange. That.

[Torchlight]

26. It's an interesting developement worth watching. I hadn't thought the crisis was this bad.

I hadn't known Covid has done such a number to their torusims industry. I was doubly surprised when I read US embassy in Havana said it had received reports of protests in Bayamo, Granma and other locations.

(Statler and Waldorf can rest easy their clapping is no more practiced than that of anyone else)

[Marcus IM]

30. The US travel ban on Americans is the primary damage to their tourism based economy.

All Caribbean nations depend on US tourism.

That is why the US bans American tourism travel to Cuba. Specifically to undermine/destroy their economy.

Yeah. Serious protests. Hundreds!

Hundreds demanding more and improved socialism.

[Torchlight]

31. Sounds serious! Good luck!

[jimfields33]

33. So serious. Good luck as well.

[jimfields33]

34. Link to the protests. Must be included.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!’

[enid602]

28. Allies

I’d guess that Cubans have more rights and a more sympathetic government than those living in countries that are some of the US’s closest allies.

[Marcus IM]

32. Most US allies are signatories of the UDHR and the ERA. Cuba has ratified both into their constitution.

So, in some ways, Cubans have more rights than Americans. Especially women.