MIAMI – Cuban-American activists met on Thursday in Miami to commemorate the third anniversary of the 2021 demonstrations on the island, as their dissent over a lack of human rights, food shortages, and power outages on the island continues.
After a morning vigil in Miami’s Coconut Grove, a group of activists met for a solidarity protest along Eighth Street, outside of Versailles, a long-time popular meeting place for exiles in Miami’s Little Havana.
Ramón Saúl Sánchez was among the small group of Cuban Americans who met for morning prayer at the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, better known as the Ermita de la Caridad, in Miami’s Coconut Grove.
Some held up signs with photos of prisoners. Some wore “This March Would Get Me Killed in Cuba” T-shirts. Some held up sunflowers they said were symbols of resilience because they can grow tall and strong even in adverse conditions.
“The demonstrations were brutally repressed by the regime,” said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, of the Movimiento Democracia, a nonprofit organization based in Miami’s Little Havana.
The SOS Cuba protests on July 11-12, 2021, motivated protesters to march in Hialeah, Little Havana, and even on highways in Miami-Dade County. Three years later, some of those who dared to participate in the dissent in Cuba were behind bars.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has acknowledged the food shortages and power outages. Since the July 11 protests, there were other protests in Havana on Sept. 30, 2022, and Oct. 1, 2022; in Caimanera on May 6, 2023, and Santiago de Cuba on March 17-18.
The Cuban American Bar Association filed a petition on Nov. 17, 2021, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Cubans who were detained or imprisoned for protesting in Cuba. As of Thursday, they were representing 52 dissidents.
Earlier this week, Amnesty International urged Cuban authorities to free Pedro Albert Sánchez, José Daniel Ferrer García, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Osorbo, Loreto Hernández García, and Donaida Pérez Paseiro.
Amnesty International also denounced alleged human rights violations suffered by Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, Wilber Aguilar Bravo, Gorki Águila, Yuri Valle Roca, Alina Bárbara López, and Jenny Pantoja.
Earlier this year, Diaz-Canel blamed the protests on “terrorists” and “enemies of the Revolution” in the United States and wrote on X that “several people” had “expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation of electrical service and food distribution.”
Diaz-Canel added, “The disposition of the authorities of the Party, the State, and the Government is to attend to the complaints of our people, listen, dialogue, explain the numerous efforts that are being carried out to improve the situation, always in an atmosphere of tranquility and peace.”
In November, Ardenys Garcia allegedly used a jetski to deliver guns, ammunition, and military gear to Cuba in a plot that Cuban authorities claimed involved 32 Cuban residents and members of the New Cuban Nation In Arms, or La Nueva Nación Cubana En Armas.
Willy González, the leader of the group in Orlando, told Telemundo he did not know Garcia, and was not aware of such an operation in Cuba. At the United Nations, Cuban diplomats alleged otherwise to protest how the U.S. accused the regime of supporting terrorism.
Meanwhile, U.S. diplomats demand that Cuban officials respect human rights. And the U.S. military deployed more resources to Guantanamo Bay after the Cuban military welcomed the Russian military’s ships to Havana.
“We urge the Cuban government to respect the human rights of the protesters and address the legitimate needs of the Cuban people,” a representative of the U.S. embassy in Havana wrote on X.
Local 10 News Archives: Protests in Miami