A Year After Cuba S Historic Protests The Government S Grip Is Tighter Than Ever

But that summer, Cubans across the country were able to live stream and watch the unfolding protests in San Antonio de los Baños in real time — and participate. Almost immediately across the island, thousands more Cubans took to the streets, some protesting food and medicine shortages, others denouncing high-ranking officials and demanding greater political freedoms. The unprecedented protests have even spread to small cities and towns where there are more horses and carriages on potholed roads than cars. In the city of San Jose de las Lajas, Marta Perdomo said her two sons Nadir and Jorge, both teachers, immediately joined the protests as soon as news of unrest reached other parts of the country. “My sons came out because like every Cuban they were desperate about the situation,” Marta Perdomo told CNN. “They are fathers. Every day here we have less. There was no medicine. It was a very sad time with the pandemic. Children were dying and old people too.” Anger boiled over for Cubans as food and medicine shortages — already commonplace in Cuba — became increasingly dire. After years of government neglect, the crazy power grids were crashing more and more frequently. While Cuban officials have long blamed US sanctions for the island’s woes, protesters on July 11 raged against their government for worsening their living conditions.
Video taken by Marta’s son Nadir that day shows crowds of anti-government protesters marching peacefully in the street, with the protesters themselves seemingly shocked at what was happening. “This is authentic! It’s spontaneous!” Nadir says excitedly in the video. According to Perdomo, protesters in San Jose de las Lajas did not loot government-run stores selling hard currency items or overturn police cars, unlike in other cities. As more and more Cubans took to the streets, it became clear that the Cuban government was facing its biggest internal challenge to staying in power in decades. In a speech on state television, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed the island’s economic problems on U.S. government sanctions, said the protests were the result of a campaign of subversion directed from abroad, and called on the faithful to take back the streets by the protesters. “We call on all the revolutionaries of the country, all the communists, to take to the streets, in all the places where they may repeat these provocations,” he said. “The order for battle has been given.” Baton-wielding government supporters along with police began breaking up the protests. Hundreds of Cubans were arrested. Some for clashing with officials, others for simply filming the commotion with their phones. As the protests in San Jose de las Lajas were broken up by government supporters and police, Nadir and Jorge Perdomo returned home and filmed a video on their phones that they were able to post online despite government efforts to cut off internet access on the island. “No one paid us,” Nadir says in the video, rejecting government claims that the protests were staged. “We’re just reacting like all people.” Both brothers were arrested days later and charged with alleged crimes including public disorder, assault and contempt. Their mother Marta said the charges against her sons were fabricated and that they were being punished for speaking out peacefully against the government. Cuban officials say many of the protesters arrested were criminals and “counter-revolutionaries.” But in their court filings, prosecutors note that neither Nadir nor Jorge had criminal records and that both were “well-respected” in their community. In February, Nadir was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison and Jorge to eight years. To date, Cuban prosecutors say they have convicted and sentenced nearly 500 people in connection with the protests, in the largest mass trials on the island in decades.

Prevent future protests

But international human rights groups say the Cuban government is using the persecution to intimidate Cubans into protesting again. “We found that prosecutors were constantly indicting Cubans for exercising their basic rights, such as the right to protest peacefully, the right to insult their president or the right to insult police officers, the exercise of the right to freedom of expression,” said Juan Papier. senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). On Monday, HRW released a report on the protests that it said documented 155 cases of alleged abuse of people who took part in last year’s protests, “including harassment, arbitrary detention, prosecutions for abuse, beatings and other ill-treatment that in some cases amount to torture.” The organization also accused the Cuban government of further cracking down on civil liberties to prevent more protests from taking place. Marta Perdomo said she experienced the tighter restrictions firsthand after being invited to Europe in June to speak about her sons to human rights groups and lawmakers. When she arrived at Havana airport, officials told her and another mother of a jailed protester that they would not be allowed to travel. “They said I was ‘set’ and couldn’t go,” Perdomo said. Cuban officials did not respond to CNN’s request asking why Marta Perdomo was not allowed to leave the island. Although Perdomo says she worries about when her three young grandchildren will see their fathers again, she has no regrets. “They didn’t have to go out, but they felt the pain of Cuba,” Perdomo said. “That’s why they came out. That day my sons were free.” It remains to be seen whether the July protests will be remembered as a rare outburst of public anger or as a new stage in the fight for greater transparency. As the pandemic, US sanctions and the slow pace of reforms continue to hurt the Cuban economy, officials on the island seem to realize that despite their harsh crackdown last year, more protests could happen at any time. In June this year, hundreds of Cuban students at a university in the city of Camagüey began a nighttime demonstration after a power outage in their dormitory. “F**k these blackouts! Turn on the power!” they shouted as they banged on pots as seen in videos posted by the students on social media. Cuban officials quickly turned on the lights.

title: “A Year After Cuba S Historic Protests The Government S Grip Is Tighter Than Ever " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-02” author: “Beth Cosgrove”

But that summer, Cubans across the country were able to live stream and watch the unfolding protests in San Antonio de los Baños in real time — and participate. Almost immediately across the island, thousands more Cubans took to the streets, some protesting food and medicine shortages, others denouncing high-ranking officials and demanding greater political freedoms. The unprecedented protests have even spread to small cities and towns where there are more horses and carriages on potholed roads than cars. In the city of San Jose de las Lajas, Marta Perdomo said her two sons Nadir and Jorge, both teachers, immediately joined the protests as soon as news of unrest reached other parts of the country. “My sons came out because like every Cuban they were desperate about the situation,” Marta Perdomo told CNN. “They are fathers. Every day here we have less. There was no medicine. It was a very sad time with the pandemic. Children were dying and old people too.” Anger boiled over for Cubans as food and medicine shortages — already commonplace in Cuba — became increasingly dire. After years of government neglect, the crazy power grids were crashing more and more frequently. While Cuban officials have long blamed US sanctions for the island’s woes, protesters on July 11 raged against their government for worsening their living conditions.
Video taken by Marta’s son Nadir that day shows crowds of anti-government protesters marching peacefully in the street, with the protesters themselves seemingly shocked at what was happening. “This is authentic! It’s spontaneous!” Nadir says excitedly in the video. According to Perdomo, protesters in San Jose de las Lajas did not loot government-run stores selling hard currency items or overturn police cars, unlike in other cities. As more and more Cubans took to the streets, it became clear that the Cuban government was facing its biggest internal challenge to staying in power in decades. In a speech on state television, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed the island’s economic problems on U.S. government sanctions, said the protests were the result of a campaign of subversion directed from abroad, and called on the faithful to take back the streets by the protesters. “We call on all the revolutionaries of the country, all the communists, to take to the streets, in all the places where they may repeat these provocations,” he said. “The order for battle has been given.” Baton-wielding government supporters along with police began breaking up the protests. Hundreds of Cubans were arrested. Some for clashing with officials, others for simply filming the commotion with their phones. As the protests in San Jose de las Lajas were broken up by government supporters and police, Nadir and Jorge Perdomo returned home and filmed a video on their phones that they were able to post online despite government efforts to cut off internet access on the island. “No one paid us,” Nadir says in the video, rejecting government claims that the protests were staged. “We’re just reacting like all people.” Both brothers were arrested days later and charged with alleged crimes including public disorder, assault and contempt. Their mother Marta said the charges against her sons were fabricated and that they were being punished for speaking out peacefully against the government. Cuban officials say many of the protesters arrested were criminals and “counter-revolutionaries.” But in their court filings, prosecutors note that neither Nadir nor Jorge had criminal records and that both were “well-respected” in their community. In February, Nadir was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison and Jorge to eight years. To date, Cuban prosecutors say they have convicted and sentenced nearly 500 people in connection with the protests, in the largest mass trials on the island in decades.

Prevent future protests

But international human rights groups say the Cuban government is using the persecution to intimidate Cubans into protesting again. “We found that prosecutors were constantly indicting Cubans for exercising their basic rights, such as the right to protest peacefully, the right to insult their president or the right to insult police officers, the exercise of the right to freedom of expression,” said Juan Papier. senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). On Monday, HRW released a report on the protests that it said documented 155 cases of alleged abuse of people who took part in last year’s protests, “including harassment, arbitrary detention, prosecutions for abuse, beatings and other ill-treatment that in some cases amount to torture.” The organization also accused the Cuban government of further cracking down on civil liberties to prevent more protests from taking place. Marta Perdomo said she experienced the tighter restrictions firsthand after being invited to Europe in June to speak about her sons to human rights groups and lawmakers. When she arrived at Havana airport, officials told her and another mother of a jailed protester that they would not be allowed to travel. “They said I was ‘set’ and couldn’t go,” Perdomo said. Cuban officials did not respond to CNN’s request asking why Marta Perdomo was not allowed to leave the island. Although Perdomo says she worries about when her three young grandchildren will see their fathers again, she has no regrets. “They didn’t have to go out, but they felt the pain of Cuba,” Perdomo said. “That’s why they came out. That day my sons were free.” It remains to be seen whether the July protests will be remembered as a rare outburst of public anger or as a new stage in the fight for greater transparency. As the pandemic, US sanctions and the slow pace of reforms continue to hurt the Cuban economy, officials on the island seem to realize that despite their harsh crackdown last year, more protests could happen at any time. In June this year, hundreds of Cuban students at a university in the city of Camagüey began a nighttime demonstration after a power outage in their dormitory. “F**k these blackouts! Turn on the power!” they shouted as they banged on pots as seen in videos posted by the students on social media. Cuban officials quickly turned on the lights.