Thousands of Cubans participated in rare anti-communist marches on Sunday, yelling “Down with the dictatorship” as President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged his followers to fight the demonstrators.
Anti-government protests erupted spontaneously in numerous cities as the country grappled with its worst economic crisis in 30 years, including chronic power and food shortages.
Hundreds of protesters marched through Havana’s capital, screaming “We Want Liberty,” with substantial military and police presence deployed outside the Capitol building after demonstrators massed outside.
AFP correspondents witnessed police using tear gas to disperse crowds and arresting at least ten people and police officers using plastic pipes to beat protestors.
Thousands of demonstrators, mostly young people, marched through San Antonio de Los Banos, a village 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Havana.
According to recordings uploaded online, security personnel arrived shortly after the protests began, and Diaz-Canel subsequently visited the town himself, surrounded by party activists while citizens heckled him.
“The order to battle has been given — into the street, revolutionaries!” said the president in a broadcast speech.
“From now on and in the coming days, we call on all revolutionaries in the country, all communists, to go out on the streets where these provocations occur and confront them in a decisive, firm, and fearless manner.”
In Havana, supporters of the government staged counter-demonstrations.
On Sunday afternoon, social media showed many anti-government protests across the country, and mobile internet, which has been available in Cuba since 2018, was generally turned off.
“Peaceful protests are spreading in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about escalating COVID cases/deaths,” Julie Chung, the senior US diplomat for Latin America, tweeted.
