An activist joining thousands at a protest in Washington, DC, on Monday told Breitbart News the Cuban-American community is dismayed with President Joe Biden “not stepping up” in defense of human rights on the island.
Leticia, an activist at Monday’s rally, described the Communist Party’s orders for civilians to attack suspected protesters as a “genocide” given that the Cuban people have no right to bear arms and no way of defending themselves against state-sponsored violence.
The assembly in Washington on Monday attracted thousands of people, potentially the largest ever of its kind in opposition to the Cuban Revolution in the United States. Protesters peacefully marched to the White House, urging Biden to take stronger actions to weaken the Castro regime’s ability to attack its own people.
Los cubanos tomaron la capital de EUA 🇺🇸. Esta debe ser una de las protestas más grandes de cubanos en Washington DC. El himno que los acompaña es #PatriaYVida. pic.twitter.com/u0PZIeE3oH
— Norges Rodríguez (@norges14) July 26, 2021
Cuba experienced a nationwide wave of protests on July 11, attracting thousands to peacefully march in dozens of cities from one end of the island to the other. While the protests – calling for an end to 62 years of communist dictatorship – were overwhelmingly peaceful and reports indicate those involved were civilians with little or no history of dissident activity, the Castro regime responded by deploying state security agents to shoot at, publicly beat, and disappear people suspected of participating in the protests. President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the current face of the Castro regime, issued an “order of combat” in a televised speech that day ordering civilians to take the streets and violently assault anyone suspected of disagreeing with the communist “Revolution.”
“We are calling all the revolutionaries of our country, all the communists, to go to the streets anywhere that these provocations are happening today, from now on through all these days,” Díaz-Canel urged.
“The moment that Díaz-Canel in Cuba gave the order of combat to the people in Cuba that have no means of defending themselves, that’s not even a civil war, that’s genocide right there,” Leticia, the protester in Washington, told Breitbart News. “And Biden’s silence is only saying that he is agreeing with that because when you stay in silence in front of a genocide, that only means that you’re an ally or that you have something to gain from this.”
Leticia recalled that Biden supported the Black Lives Matter movement.
“When it was all about Black Lives Matter, he really stepped up on that, so what about Cubans’ lives? It doesn’t matter? What about these children’s lives, it doesn’t matter? Where is the UNICEF, the organization for the children? Where is the United Nations?”
“So that is our issue with Biden, that that administration has done nothing – not even emotional support for the people dying right now,” the protester noted. “Moms in Cuba are committing suicide right now because their children are literally bleeding to death and the mom had to commit suicide – not only one, some of them. … None of this, they’re not even showing it on the news.”
Leticia appeared to be referring to the case of the mother of Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, the only person the Communist Party has confirmed to have died in the protests. Tejeda, 36, was reportedly participating in protests when police opened fire on an unarmed crowd in Havana and died of gunshot wounds. Reports from Cuba following the confirmation of his death indicated that his mother, who has not been named, overdosed on unspecified medication deliberately following the death of her only son.
Cuban human rights organizations have identified at least 742 people who are either confirmed in police custody or have disappeared since July 11, a significantly lower number than the estimated thousands actually imprisoned both on that day and during subsequent protests. Many of those on the confirmed list are well-known dissidents, which makes it easier to find someone to reach out to who can confirm their status. At the top of the list is the head of what is believed to be Cuba’s largest dissident organization, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), José Daniel Ferrer. Ferrer’s whereabouts remain unknown as of Tuesday and his family does not know what, if anything, police have charged him with.
The mothers of the missing attempted to organize a protest last week demanding to know the status of their children. The Castro regime cut off access to the internet in the immediate aftermath of the protests, however, and deployed a massive state security presence around the homes of protest organizers to prevent them from leaving their homes. Videos surfacing from Havana show police abruptly plucking people off of the street who were suspected of attempting to reach an assembly point to support the group of mothers.
The Biden administration has done little in response to the protests. Administration officials first dismissed the protests as a call for help fighting the Chinese coronavirus, not a demand for regime change. Biden himself later issued a tepid statement in support of the “Cuban people” and organized Zoom meetings with prominent Cuban-American celebrities Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia.
Last week, Biden sanctioned on Cuban administration official, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba Álvaro López Miera, and the “black beret” Cuban special repression forces – both of whom Washington had already sanctioned under predecessor Donald Trump.
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