Cuba: Anger Erupts In The Streets, Revolutionaries Called To Respond

Exasperated by the economic crisis, thousands of Cubans demonstrated across the country on Sunday, shouting "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!" 

President Miguel Diaz-Canel, for his part, calling on his supporters to respond in the street.

"The order to fight has been given, in the street the revolutionaries," the president said in a televised address, accusing "the Cuban-American mafia" of being behind this uprising.

"We call on all the revolutionaries of the country, all the communists, to go out in the streets where these provocations will occur, from now on and in the next few days. And to face them in a decisive, firm and courageous way," he said.

At the end of the day, several groups of supporters gathered in different places in the capital to prepare for the march, AFP noted.

Widely disseminated via social networks, the anti-government protests began spontaneously in the morning, an extremely rare event in this country governed by the Communist Party, where the only authorized gatherings are generally those of the party.

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged Cuba into a serious economic crisis, the worst in 30 years, exacerbating food and drug shortages and generating strong social unrest.

Economic difficulties have prompted the authorities to cut electricity for several hours a day.