CUBA NEWS August 8, 2021
The last couple of months have been eventful in Cuba. On Sunday, July 11, 2021, several hundred-thousand and perhaps over a million Cubans staged the largest protests in over sixty-two years. Throughout the island people of all ages marched through the streets screaming for freedom and an end to communist rule. For several hours many of the protests were transmitted live on social media, but eventually the government shut-down the internet. The following day people took to the streets again, but they were met by the police and paramilitary forces who attacked them with batons, bats, and a few people were shot and killed. Over the next few days videos were posted of people being attacked and severely injured by the government forces.
Most of the protestors were young, but there were people of all ages. The non-elected president, Miguel Diaz-Canel called on his communist comrades to attack the protestors, and stated on national television, “the combat order has been given.”
Since July 11th sporadic protests continue across the island, and thousands have been arrested by police and militia forces that are now ubiquitous on Cuban streets. Of the over one-thousand people detained, many are being held without communication, in undisclosed locations.
Police cars, buses, and military trucks spread out across the island in a show of force in the immediate aftermath of the massive protests. The housands of police and military vehicles, and their equipment, has many Cubans questioning the ability of the communist regime to purchase such items, and then claim to not be able to provide food for the people.
In less interesting news, in June, the Swiss cement conglomerate, Lafarge Holeim, settled the first lawsuit stemming from a legal claim based on Title III of the Helms Burton Act of 1996. The lawsuit accused the company of operating a cement plant on land that had been seized in 1960.
On July 3rd, the Cuban press reported that Cuba would produce less than a million tons of sugar for the 2020-2021 season. It is the smallest sugar harvest in Cuba in over one-hundred years. Every possible reason was given as an excuse for the failure, including technology, labor, transportation, mills, equipment, climate, infrastructure, organization, and the U.S. embargo. Before 1959 when Cuba’s sugar mills were privately owned, there were over one-hundred and fifty in operation. After sixty years of communist operation, only thirty-eight are functioning today.
From mid-June to July 1, the number of new COVID infections doubled in Cuba, from approximately fifteen hundred to over three thousand. The daily number of cases continued increasing until July 9th, when over six-thousand cases were reported. COVID related deaths also increased, from ten a day in mid-June to over sixty by July 16th. By the end of August, the daily case count of new infections was over ten thousand per day.
In startling news, over the course of ten days in the second half of July, five Cuban Army generals died mysteriously. The youngest was 58 years-old, and all had been cremated by the time their deaths were announced, which indicates that perhaps the generals did not die of natural causes.