A group of Cuban exiles in Miami and local conservative activists from Venezuela, Colombia and Nicaragua called for people in Miami to support a nationwide strike in Cuba and for the Biden administration to intervene in the aftermath of massive protests on the island.
Members of the Assembly for Cuban Resistance, a coalition of organizations against communism in Cuba that advocates for human rights, said in a press conference Monday that they are supporting the young people on the island as they take to the streets and want the U.S. to intervene militarily.
“The Cuban people are not on the streets asking for medicine, they’re not on the streets asking for food. They’re in the streets demanding freedom,” said Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, a Cuban exile and prominent human rights advocate in Miami. “What they are saying is they don’t want a tomorrow with the Communist Party in charge.”
On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets in cities throughout the island to demand the end of the regime, and asking for the immediate resignation of Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel, as shortages of food, medicine and vaccines have hit the island’s residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several videos circulated on social media showed the unprecedented demonstrations — in which some protesters flipped over a patrol car and threw rocks at police — were met with harsh beatings, widespread arrests and even shootings from Cuban special forces.
Meanwhile, Diaz-Canel blamed the protests on the U.S. embargo and heavy financial sanctions imposed on the island during the Trump administration. On Sunday, he called for supporters of the regime to go out on the streets. “The combat order has been issued,” he said.
Gutierrez-Boronat said that “call for violence” should be enough for the U.S. to get involved.
“We are asking for the international community, led by the United States, to intervene, to protect the Cuban people from a bloodbath and to bring this regime to an end,” said Gutierrez-Boronat, citing the so-called Cuban Resolution signed in 1962 that called for stopping the communist regime in Cuba “by whatever means may be necessary.”
The Biden administration said Monday that the president stood with the people of Cuba and that the Cuban government should respect its citizens’ rights to protest.
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
Also present during the Miami media event were Muñeca Fuentes, president of the Nicaraguan American Republican Alliance, and Fabio Andrade, a conservative Colombian activist in Miami. The group called for supporters in Miami to join a protest in solidarity of Cubans on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Cuban Memorial in Tamiami Park.
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, a political prisoner from Cuba known as Antunez who was jailed for 17 years and 38 days on the island, said Monday after the press conference that it was important for the U.S. government to understand that the groups did not support calls for negotiations with Cuban leaders.
“We have to support those who are inside Cuba who are the real protagonists of this change,” said Garcia Perez, “and I as a political prisoner, as an anti-Castro fighter, I am filled with hope to make a soon return to my homeland.”
Garcia Perez said the support for the Cuban opposition from the U.S. must avoid letting the Cuban regime force an exodus to deal with the current situation, something he thinks has been a past strategy to keep the Communist Party in power.
“Those people who are out on the streets are not asking for rafts. They’re not asking for boats, they’re not asking for planes or visas,” he said. “They’re asking for freedom.”
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