People in Cuba’s government say that the US and its ambassador, Benjamin Ziff, are trying to start protests in the country.
A lot of people protested against the Cuban government. Most of the leaders were parents who were having trouble feeding their kids. People from Cuba stood in Santiago de Cuba and chanted, “The people get hot without food and electricity.”
For up to 18 hours a day, Cuba has been without power, which has caused food to go bad and other problems. Mothers started the protests by shouting “We are hungry!” outside of a government building. Similar protests happened all over Cuba, with parents getting together to voice their anger.
The U.S. Embassy in Cuba tweeted, “We urge the Cuban government to respect the human rights of the protesters and meet the legitimate needs of the Cuban people.” The charges that Washington was behind the protests were called “absurd” by a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department.
It’s been hard for Cuba’s economy, and inflation and a big gap between the rich and the poor have made things worse. Many of the things that bodegas sell have been hard to find, so the shelves have been empty in many of them.
During the protests, Beatriz Johnson, who was the first secretary of Santiago’s communist party, told the people that the government was making a food basket that would be given to them. She also said that the problems they were talking about were being heard, and she hoped the government would do something about it.
The Cuban government says that the poor economy is due to a trade ban that was in place more than 60 years ago. The United States put in place trade sanctions with Cuba, which made items much more expensive. This led to the trade embargo.
