Man confirmed killed in anti-government unrest in Cuba

July 14, 2021: One man has died during rare anti-government demonstrations in Cuba that have shaken the island in recent days.

Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, 36, died in a suburb of Havana on Monday during a clash between protesters and police.

According to the Interior Ministry, he was part of a group that attacked a government facility. He says some protesters were arrested. But eyewitnesses say security forces attacked people who took to the streets to protest. Extraordinary anti-government protests erupted on Sunday as thousands protested against food and medicine shortages, rising prices and the government’s handling of the Covid 19 pandemic. Unauthorized public gatherings are illegal in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the protesters “revolutionary revolutions.”

His government has sought to blame the United States and its economic sanctions for both the protests and Cuba’s wider problems.

As yet there is no official explanation for how Diubis Laurencio Tejeda died.

State media said he had been involved in “disturbances” in the neighborhood of La Genera in Havana on Monday, where a group allegedly attacked a government center. It reported that several others, including members of the security forces, were injured. A statement from the Interior Ministry on Tuesday accused protesters of vandalizing, setting fire and attacking police as well as civilians. But eyewitnesses said security forces attacked peaceful protesters who had joined an impromptu demonstration in the neighborhood.

Waldo Herrera, who lives in the area, told Reuters that news agency officials had pulled out a gun and opened fire on protesters. “I think the communists have lost control, they have no solution for this situation,” he said.

On Tuesday, the police were out in force on the streets. More than 100 people have been arrested and many relatives are looking for information on their whereabouts. The unrest began with a demonstration in the city of San Antonio de los Baños, south-west of Havana, but it soon spread throughout the country.

Posts on social media showed people overturning police cars and looting state-owned shops that price their goods in foreign currencies. For many Cubans, these shops are the only way they can buy basic necessities but prices are high.

The demonstrations appear to be the result of societal exhaustion stemming from various economic and health crises, analysts say. The pandemic and economic measures taken by the government have made life in Cuba increasingly difficult. There have been reports of internet blackouts across the island. Cuba rolled out access to mobile internet in December 2018, but it is controlled by the state.

Internet shutdown watchdog NetBlocks said on Monday that state run internet provider Etecsa had blocked access to platforms including WhatsApp and Facebook.

The Cuban journalist Camila Acosta, who writes for the Spanish newspaper ABC, is among those who have been detained. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for immediate release in a tweet on Tuesday, and asked Cuba to respect people’s right to demonstrate “freely and peacefully”.

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