Cuban president accuses U.S. of stoking social unrest

Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel in blue shirt talks to the media, in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, July 11, 2021. /Reuters

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Monday accused the United States of attempting to stoke social unrest on the island, where violence broke out in several towns Sunday.

The president, who on Sunday called on loyalists "to take to the streets to defend the revolution," appeared again on national radio and television channels, accompanied by members of his cabinet and the politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

Diaz-Canel said he was taking to the airwaves "to clarify that a whole group of interests in recent weeks and in recent hours has tried to discredit the work of the government, to discredit the work of the revolution."

The first secretary of the PCC Central Committee said his appearance had been planned for days to "provide information" to the people about the situation in the country, which is undergoing shortages of food, medicine, and fuel.

Diaz-Canel accused the United States of seeking to stoke social unrest in Cuba when the country is experiencing its worst COVID-19 outbreak.

He highlighted the efforts made by the government to tackle the pandemic, particularly in the western province of Matanzas, which has become the epicenter of the outbreak in Cuba.

In response to the unrest and Diaz-Canel's call for solidarity, thousands of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday to show their support for the government.

The island country also suffers from a decades-old trade embargo imposed by the United States.

First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which banned U.S. flights to Cuban cities except for Havana, barred U.S. cruise ships and yachts from visiting the Caribbean nation, and limited remittances that Cuban-Americans send to their families on the island.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency