Cuban leader blames protests on his government – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

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HAVANA (AP) Cuban President Miguel Daz-Canel offers for the first time a self-criticism while saying that the government’s shortcomings in dealing with shortages and other issues have played a role in this week’s protests.

But in a televised address Wednesday evening, he also called on Cubans not to act with hatred in reference to the violence that occurred during some of the rare street protests in which protesters voiced their grievances over the prices. high, food shortages and power outages, while some people also called for a change of government.

Until now, the Cuban government had only blamed social media and the US government for the weekend protests, which were the largest in Cuba in a quarter of a century, when then-President Fidel Castro had personally taken to the streets to calm thousands of angry people. on the severe shortages following the collapse of the Soviet Union and its economic subsidies for the island.

Daz-Canel, however, said state failings played a role in the unrest.

We need to gain experience from the unrest, he said. We must also do a critical analysis of our problems to act and overcome, and avoid their repetition.

During the protests, many Cubans expressed their anger at the long queues and shortages of food and medicine, as well as repeated power cuts. Some have called for a faster rate of vaccination against the coronavirus. But there were also calls for political change in a country ruled by the Communist Party for some six decades.

Police intervened and arrested dozens of protesters, sometimes violently, and the government accused protesters of looting and vandalizing shops. Smaller protests continued on Monday and authorities reported at least one death. No incidents were reported on Wednesday.

Our society is not a hate-generating society and these people have acted with hatred, said Daz-Canel. The feeling of the Cubans is a feeling of solidarity and these people have committed these armed acts, death-crying vandalism planning to loot public places, to break, to steal, to throw stones.

Authorities have not communicated the number of people arrested, Colonel Moraima Bravet of the Interior Ministry said only on Wednesday that most of them are between 25 and 37 years old and will be prosecuted for offenses such as public disturbance , assault, contempt, theft or damage.

Cuba is suffering from its worst crisis in years because of a combination of the coronavirus pandemic that crippled its economy, including the vital tourism industry, inefficiencies in the state-run economy and tougher sanctions Americans on the island. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed more than 200 measures against the island in four years.

Daz-Canel said this complex situation has been taken advantage of by those who don’t really want the Cuban revolution to develop or a civilized relationship with respect for the United States.

Shortly before the president’s remarks, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced measures such as customs flexibility for Cuban citizens who go on trips abroad to bring home toiletries, food and medicine. , which are some of the hardest items to find in Cuba.

Marrero also said work was underway to improve the stability of the national electricity system and officials would seek to improve the supply of drugs, many of which are produced on the island but whose inputs must be imported.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Alejandro Gil has announced that directors of state-owned enterprises will be allowed to set salaries beyond regulation. He also said that in the coming weeks long-promised rules will be instituted for the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises, a step once unthinkable under the Communist government.

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