Less than a week after a rare series of anti-government protests were broken up by police and government sympathizers and elicited self-criticism from President Miguel Diaz-Canel, things appear calm in Cuba. But many wonders for how much longer?
Squares and parks were occupied by government sympathizers with flags on Friday, and the circulation of traffic and people was normalising. But mobile internet data service 바카라 which authorities cut on Sunday 바카라 remained limited.
바카라There is political and social erosion ... There is a lot of disgust, we must talk more, do more things, and things that were done wrong should be rectified,바카라 said Abel Alba, a 50-year-old civil engineer. 바카라The president has tried to smooth things over a bit바카라 but he waited 바카라too long바카라 to listen to the demands of the people in the streets.
The protests began Sunday when thousands of Cubans marched on Havana's Malecon promenade and elsewhere to protest food and medicine shortages, power outages, and some even calling for political change. The protests continued in smaller numbers into Monday and Tuesday.
Diaz-Canel initially responded by looking for culprits, pointing to U.S. economic sanctions, the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and a social media campaign by Cuban American groups. But he later acknowledged some responsibility by Cuba's leaders.
With this in mind, Cuban Cabinet ministers announced a mix of measures including permits for travelers to import food and medicine without limits and allowing the emergency registration of Cubans' supply books by people outside their place of origin.
바카라The Cuban government has just shown that it could have allowed the entry of food and medicine without quantity limits or tariffs all along but chose not to do so for more than a year of the pandemic,바카라 wrote JosĂ© Jasan Nieves, director of the independent digital newspaper, El Toque. 바카라People twisted their arms.바카라
Authorities reiterated their intentions to finish authorizing the operation of small and medium-sized companies as a source of employment as well as a program for state companies to pay more than the current salary scale.
What officials also made clear is that they are not willing to make changes to the island's political model.
Street vendor Marlen Rodriguez, 66, was not optimistic following the government's announcements. 바카라There are no medicines, there is nothing, there is no food.바카라
According to DĂaz-Canel, there were four sectors involved in the protests: radical supporters of the United States who waved that country's flag during the protests and demanded a humanitarian intervention from Washington, criminal groups who took advantage of the situation to loot, people genuinely desperate due to the impact of the crisis on their daily lives and young who have no projects in society.
The marches turned violent with police clashing with protesters, patrol cars being destroyed, shops looted, windows broken, stones thrown and violent arrests and injuries.
Some Cubans were upset by the vandalism and groups of government supporters took to the streets and clashed with protesters.
바카라They were coming down the Calzada de San Miguel (del PadrĂłn) while we were going up. We tried to persuade them, but these comrades were violent and threw stones at us,바카라 said Julio CĂ©sar PĂ©rez, a Communist Party member and employee of the Ministry of Construction. He said several members of his group were injured in the brawl.
One government opponent died in the protests and the exact number of people arrested is not known. Government opponents have said on social media that the number is more than 100.
On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for the release of the protesters.
The measures announced by the government 바카라are positive measures, but they are insufficient,바카라 said Cuban economist Omar Everleny PĂ©rez.
바카라Without affecting the ideology, there is a lot of space in which the State can take action,바카라 he said, mentioning permits for private entrepreneurs to import goods without going through the state monopoly, allowing foreign companies to install retail markets or raising the ceiling for agricultural prices in order to increase supply.
But political analysts said the economic challenges are great.
바카라I think the government is just trying to signal to people that it understands their desperation and that it's going to try to alleviate some of the misery that they're experiencing. The problem is that the government just doesn't have much in the way of resources that it can devote to doing that,바카라 said William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba at the American University in the United States.
LeoGrande said the unrest in Cuba and the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel MoĂŻse have put the Caribbean back on the agenda of U.S. President Joe Biden.
바카라There is no question that the demonstrations in Cuba and the assassination of Haiti's president and the resulting unrest there have pushed the Caribbean to the top of President Biden's foreign policy agenda, even though they would have preferred that it stayed on the back burner for a much longer time,바카라 he said. 바카라What the administration will do on Cuba is still very much up in the air.바카라
