Cuban officials rallied tens of thousands of supporters in the streets Saturday nearly a week after they were stunned by the most widespread protests in decades. President Miguel Díaz-Canel – accompanied by 90-year-old former President Raul Castro – appeared on the seafront Malecon boulevard that had seen some of the largest protests against shortages and the political system the previous weekend.
He made an impassioned speech blaming unrest on the U.S. and its economic embargo, “the blockade, aggression and terror,” as a crowd waved Cuban flags and those of the July 26 Movement that Fidel Castro led during Cuba’s revolution. “The enemy has returned to throw all it has at destroying the sacred unity and tranquility of the citizens,” he said.
He ended without the traditional cry of “Homeland or Death!” – a slogan mocked last week by protesters shouting, “Homeland and life”. The protests began Sunday when thousands of Cubans marched along the Malecon and elsewhere to protest food and medicine shortages, power outages and some even calling for political change. Smaller protests continued Monday and Tuesday.
