Over the weekend, many anti-government protests broke out across Cuba with citizens pleading for their freedom and demanding the country’s communist dictatorship be disbanded.
You would think that some of our government’s most outspoken and self-proclaimed socialists would be front and center for this historic event taking place just miles from Florida’s coast but Democrats at the White House appear to have turned their backs on Cuba.
Thousands of Cubans marched on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere to protest food shortages, high prices and the coronavirus outbreak in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in the country ever.
Police initially trailed behind as protesters chanted “Freedom,” “Enough” and “Unite.” One motorcyclist pulled out a U.S. flag, but it was snatched from him by others.
Critics jumped on social media to slam the Biden administration for appearing to have dropped the ball in response to the protests.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, took the State Department to task over a tweet that blamed the protest on concerns over COVID-19 and not the worsening economic situation or the fact that protesters chanted, “We Want Liberty.”
“People in Cuba are protesting 62 years of socialism, lies, tyranny & misery not ‘expressing concern about rising COVID-19 cases/deaths. Why is it so hard for @Potus & the people in his administration to say that?” Rubio tweeted.
Critics will likely say that these Democratic socialists are remaining quiet in the early stages of the protests because there are so many unknowns. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who heads the Communist Party, has already called on the country’s revolutionaries to counter the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been very vocal in backing protesters’ efforts in Cuba. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, showed his support for thousands of Cubans in a Twitter post writing, “The American people stand squarely with the men & women of Cuba and their noble fight for liberty.”
