As the unprecedented protests in Cuba continue, the voices of the Cuban people have apparently been heard in Washington, D.C., and the Oval Office.
An expert on Cuba with close ties to the Biden Administration told Politico that the demonstrations have made an impact.
“I know that the White House is finally paying attention.”
Biden had promised during his presidential campaign to reverse former president Trump’s sanctions against Cuba, but his administration has steadfastly refused to show any indication of a timeline when asked. This weekend’s uprising has forced the White House to move Cuba up on its list of priorities. Thousands of Cubans have been protesting in the streets and clashing with authorities since Sunday to protest massive food shortages, a lack of COVID-19 vaccines and to call for an end to the dictatorship that has had a stranglehold on the island for more than six decades.
Biden issued a statement in support of the Cuban people and their protests, but said nothing about offering any type of aid. Ben Rhodes, a former senior aide in the Obama Administration, said the current president has to do more.
“The easy political thing to do is to issue demands for freedom from America while doing nothing,” Rhodes told Politico. “I just don’t think that’s the approach that’s going to be constructive here.”
The situation in Cuba mirrors what happened earlier this year when fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants and forced Biden to address the Middle East much sooner than he anticipated. A similar moment is happening now, and threatens the White House’s reviews of Cuba policies.
New Jersey Senator Bob Mendendez, whose parents emigrated from Cuba to New York City in the 1950s, told CNN’s Jake Tapper he thinks Biden is reviewing former president Obama’s policies to see what worked, and what didn’t.
"This is the frustration of years of a regime whose policies ultimately do not allow the Cuban people to realize their hopes and dreams and aspirations and have a better life," says Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of historic protests in Cuba. https://t.co/e5WFtbhGXR pic.twitter.com/DuhuaApOXz
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) July 12, 2021
President Biden wasn’t the only prominent leader paying attention to the Cuban protests.
The situation concerned the Cuban regime enough that Raul Castro, who stepped down as president in April, came out of retirement to attend a crisis meeting of the government.
NEW: Raúl Castro, the octogenarian leader who is still the ultimate authority in Cuba, came out of retirement to attend an emergency meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo to deal with the islandwide protests that have shaken the six-decade-old regime. https://t.co/RumM5zLhyN
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) July 13, 2021
Even though Miguel Díaz-Canel, his hand-picked successor, is now president, Castro is still viewed by many as the de facto ruler of the communist island.
The Miami Herald reports that Castro’s appearance at the meeting does not signal confidence in Diaz-Canel’s ability to contain the protests:
Castro’s presence in the meeting is a sign of how seriously the regime takes the protests, and may also be an indication that there are doubts that Díaz-Canel, whom Castro selected to succeed him at the top of the party and as president, can handle the crisis alone.
After the protests started in San Antonio de los Baños near Havana, Díaz-Canel visited the town in the hopes of calming the situation, in a gesture mimicking what the late Fidel Castro did when demonstrators took to the Malecon in 1994. But by Sunday afternoon, the protests had spread throughout the country. Díaz-Canel then appeared on television, seemingly agitated, and called on felllow communists to confront the demonstrators by any means necessary. Facing criticism, he tried to walk back his comments in a televised address on Monday, saying he didn’t call for violence but said the demonstrators “got what they deserve.”
The Politburo meeting took place on Sunday, when the massive and extremely rare demonstrations began in several Cuban cities, including Havana.
More than a hundred people are reportedly in jail or missing following the protests that have gripped Cuba since Sunday.
The Movimiento San Isidro, an anti-government activist group which advocates for greater artistic expression in Cuba, published a list of people that it said were believed to have been detained by authorities. One of those detained is journalist Camila Acosta. Spain’s Foreign Minister has already demanded her release.
On Sunday, CNN journalists witnessed multiple people being forcibly arrested and thrown in the back of vans at protests in Havana. Videos of the protest showed demonstrators turning over a police car and throwing rocks at officers.The Cuban government has not said how many people were arrested or injured in the disturbances.