Biggest Protest

About a year ago, Cuba saw one of the largest protests against its communist government. On 11 July 2021, protests against the communist party and the Cuban government erupted in the country due to the shortage of food and medicine and the government’s response to the COVID pandemic. The demonstration was the largest demonstration after the anti-government protests of 1994.

Thousands of people were seen in the streets of many cities shouting ‘freedom’ and slogans against the dictatorship. The protester also took this opportunity to voice their resentment against the country’s authoritarian rules and harsh laws that curb civil liberties. Various reasons, like the government’s pandemic lockdown rules and failure to follow various rules that led to the country’s poor economy, attributed to this unrest that shook the government to the core.

The citizens of Cuba wanted changes and were done with the dictatorships. Let us delve deeper to understand the main reasons for their protests.

The COVID pandemic

One of the main reasons for the outbreak is the inefficiency of the government in handling the country during the pandemic. The harsh economic measures taken by the country and the health crisis made life in Cuba unbearable. The country with Covide-19 under control in 2020 became flooded with numerous cases by 2021. It is said that the number of casualties and death that were reported was far less than the original figures. However, within a few months, the country had a breaking number of daily corona cases and numerous deaths, pushing the country’s healthcare system to collapse.

Cubans

The BBC reported that many of the civilians died without getting adequate medical support. In addition, there was no room or enough doctors to check the patients in the hospitals. Thus, the medical negligence and inadequacy of the health centers fueled the rebellion.

The social media posts with #SOS Cuba were calling for humanitarian intervention to help the critical situation in this island country.

 The Economic Crisis

One of the major drivers of the Cuban economy was tourism which practically got paralyzed by the pandemic. So, naturally, this has a profound effect on the country’s economic and social life.

Adding to these issues, the growing inflation, blackouts, and shortage of food and medicine aggravated the situation. Moreover, at the beginning of the year, the government introduced a new economic reform that guaranteed an increase in wages, which boosted prices for basic products.

Along with these issues, the medical centers didn’t have any aspirin when the island faced scabies and other infectious diseases. Moreover, the government stopped temporarily accepting cash deposits in dollars, which were the main currency Cuban citizens got in remittances from abroad.

We cannot say that the Cuban protest was a huge success. But it was successful enough to draw international attention to the Cuban plight and brought to attention the long-standing issues that need to be addressed immediately.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *