Miami politicians express solidarity with Cuban protesters as mayor calls for US intervention
Miami, Florida – Crowds of Miami residents joined in solidarity with thousands of Cubans who took to the streets to protest the island's government on Sunday.
Hundreds of people gathered in Miami's Little Havana district to protest the Cuban government on Sunday, as the Caribbean island nation experienced large-scale anti-government protests of its own.
According to NPR, demonstrators were protesting food shortages and high prices that worsened during the coronavirus crisis. Protesters in Miami, which is home to the largest Cuban-American population in the US, echoed similar concerns, with one resident telling NBC 6, "People here are crying because there is no medicine, there is no health, there is no food [in Cuba]."
The decades-long trade embargo in addition to US sanctions imposed during the Trump administration and left in place by the Biden administration certainly haven't helped Cuba through its coronavirus and economic crises.
Miami politicians also made statements against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel and in favor of the Cuban protesters.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a registered Republican whose father was the city's first Cuban-born mayor, said, "Cubans are worthy and ready to rule themselves without tyranny. It can end today and it must end today. The implications of this moment can mean freedom for millions of people in the hemisphere, from Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and so many more."
Suarez even called for the US to intervene "to protect the Cuban people from a bloodbath."
The suggestion is particularly disturbing considering the US' history of interference and destabilization in the country, including immediately after Cuban independence from Spain in 1898, when the US made the island a protectorate and asserted its own right to intervene in the country. The US later propped up the repressive military dictator Fulgencio Batista.
After Fidel Castro led a successful revolution to oust Batista in 1959, the US again attempted to intervene to overthrow the new socialist government during the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.
More Miami politicians express their solidarity with protesters
The Miami mayor wasn't the only one to express his support for the protesters.
Three Cuban-American members of Congress from Miami, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos A. Gimenez, and Maria Elvira Salazar, also released a joint statement, reading, "The humanitarian crisis Cuba faces right now is yet another symptom of the incompetence and absolute cruelty of the Cuban tyranny."
"We know what freedom means for the Cuban people, and now, while the regime uses savage violence against the people peacefully demonstrating in the streets, the world has the obligation to stand with the brave Cuban people," the statement continued.
All three signees are Republicans.
President Díaz-Canel accused Cuban Americans of stirring up the trouble in the island nation. According to NPR, he told reporters, "As if pandemic outbreaks had not existed all over the world, the Cuban-American mafia, paying very well on social networks to influencers and YouTubers, has created a whole campaign... and has called for demonstrations across the country."
US President Joe Biden also issued a statement on Monday in support of the Cuban protesters, saying, "We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba's authoritarian regime."
He continued, "The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves."
Cover photo: IMAGO / Agencia EFE