Black Lives Matter blamed the “cruel and inhumane” U.S. embargo on Cuba for the country’s crisis as its citizens protest President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s authoritarian regime.
The organization accused the United States of causing instability through historic economic embargoes that led to “pain and suffering” for Cubans for nearly 60 years. The group also praised the Cuban government for granting black revolutionaries asylum in the past.
“Black Lives Matter condemns the US federal government’s inhumane treatment of Cubans, and urges it to immediately lift the economic embargo,” the group wrote Wednesday.
DEMOCRATS DIVIDED ON CUBA RESPONSE FOLLOWING ANTI-REGIME PROTESTS
Diaz-Canel admitted Wednesday in a televised address that his government’s failures played a role in the protests.
“The extortionist ring known as the Black Lives Matter organization took a break today from shaking down corporations for millions & buying themselves mansions to share their support for the Communist regime in #Cuba,” said Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
The extortionist ring known as the Black Lives Matter organization took a break today from shaking down corporations for millions & buying themselves mansions to share their support for the Communist regime in #Cuba https://t.co/xir94EIJ4X
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 15, 2021
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley echoed Rubio’s remarks, saying, “Here’s the Black Lives Matter org supporting the brutal & oppressive dictatorship in #Cuba.”
Here’s the Black Lives Matter org supporting the brutal & oppressive dictatorship in #Cuba – https://t.co/Y79yuTr2Mb
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 15, 2021
Hillel Neuer, a Canadian-born international lawyer and director of a United Nations watchdog group, said Black Lives Matter “just sided with the oppressor.”
In Cuba, a repressive regime is firing on peaceful protesters.
In America, the organization Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter just sided with the oppressor. https://t.co/AkL9pLBSMG https://t.co/HHRJhg6nas pic.twitter.com/XShBJwA4go
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 15, 2021
Black Lives Matter’s statement called on President Joe Biden to end the embargo in Cuba, calling it a “blatant human rights violation” that “must come to and end.”
The same sentiment has been repeated by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who tweeted Monday it was “long past time to end the unilateral U.S. embargo on Cuba.”
The U.S. embargo is “undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government,” Black Lives Matter said, but the organization did not underscore that Cuba is a communist one-party state. While the country does have elections, Cuba’s government has faced condemnation from human rights groups and Western governments for being undemocratic.
The protests in Cuba represent a “clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement Monday.
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Despite the administration’s support of the people’s protest movement, it has stopped short of implementing policies between Cuba and the U.S.
