Cuban Americans gather in Miami to help dissidents organize protests in Cuba

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© Reuters. People attend a rally ahead of a Cuban opposition demonstration in Miami, Florida, USA on November 14, 2021. REUTERS / Marco Bello
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By Brian Ellsworth and Marc Frank
MIAMI / HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban Americans led rallies and prayers in Miami on Sunday to protest greater political freedoms this week in a communist-run Caribbean island and demand the release of imprisoned activists.
Cuban dissidents have been preparing for the “Civic March for Change” for several weeks after protests across the nation in July, Fidel Castro’s biggest since the 1959 revolution. Rights groups say more than 1,000 people were arrested after the rallies and hundreds remain in jail.
The government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel has banned the march in Havana on Monday and planned protests in other Cuban cities, saying they are part of a U.S. destabilization campaign that maintains the Cold War embargo on Cuba. U.S. officials have denied the allegations.
White-clad protesters gathered at a park in eastern Miami on Sunday to show support for Cuban dissidents, and held a collective prayer for Cuban civil rights at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami in the afternoon, honoring the Catholic. Cuban patron.
“Today’s activity is more than just moral support for our country … to show that they are not alone,” said Niurka Prestamo, a 45-year-old real estate agent who attended the rally.
The Miami appearance was made at the same time as playwright and dissident leader Yunior Garcia was expected to leave his home in Havana, alone to march, holding a white rose in his hand, to emphasize the non-violent nature of his movement.
Garcia said he would leave his home at 1 p.m. But almost two hours later, he still seemed to be inside.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the “incitement tactics” carried out by the Cuban government on Monday in Cuba on Sunday and vowed that the United States would take steps to seek “responsibility” for repression.
A Facebook-led (NASDAQ 🙂 Archipelago-led Facebook group is facing protests on Monday, coinciding with Cuba’s reopening of its borders for tourism following restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The archipelago says it has 31,500 members, more than half of whom are within Cuba. The group applied for official permission to march in September, and was quickly denied.
Miami has the largest Cuban-American population in the United States, which grew in the years following the 1959 revolution.
A quarter of the archipelago’s members live in the United States, the group says, including 1,200 in Miami.
The city was the scene of conspiracy efforts against Castro during the Cold War, and Cuban-American residents continue to oppose the Havana government as a group, although some of the younger generations have tried to re-establish relations in recent years. Island.
“We are here to give a cry for freedom. We want to tell the people that he is not alone,” said Serafin Moran, a 43-year-old Miami protester and journalist. “Today we send a farewell, a message to the Cuban people: ‘Yes. you are on the street, so are we ”.
Small rallies in support of Cuban dissidents were held on Sunday in other cities around the world, from Canada to Spain.
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