Jul 12,2021: Chanting “freedom” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades.
The protests erupted amid Cuba’s worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, its former ally, and a record surge in coronavirus infections, with people voicing anger over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the authorities’ handling of the pandemic.
Thousands gathered in downtown Havana and along parts of the seaside drive, their shouts of “Diaz-Canel step down” drowning out groups of government supporters brandishing the Cuban flag and chanting “Fidel.”
