Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price made comments in Washington DC on Tuesday about the protests in Cuba over frustrations with the country's economic situations and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Price called for 'calm,' before adding that they are "considering options available to us that would allow us to support the Cuban people."
"We continue to follow widespread, peaceful protests throughout Cuba as Cubans are calling for freedom and human rights. They are standing up to Cuba's authoritarian regime. Their basic needs are not being met and they are understandably exhausted. We commend the people of Cuba for showing great bravery, the strength of their will, and the power of their voice," said the State Department spokesperson.
Price said that they remain 'deeply concerned' by the Cuban government's position and the images of violence.
The unrest in Cuba was triggered by the island nation's worsening economic crisis, record numbers of COVID-19 cases and lack of basic goods.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel accused the US of 'orchestrating' the unrest via social media campaigns and by sending 'mercenaries' to the country.
SOT, Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson: "We continue to follow widespread, peaceful protests throughout Cuba as Cubans are calling for freedom and human rights. They are standing up to Cuba's authoritarian regime. Their basic needs are not being met and they are understandably exhausted. We commend the people of Cuba for showing great bravery, the strength of their will, and the power of their voice. In response, the Cuban Government has attempted to silence their voices and communications through internet shutdowns, violence, and arbitrary detentions of dozens of protesters, journalists, activists, and other repressive tactics. We remain deeply concerned by the Cuban Government's, quote, 'call to combat' and by the images of violence that we have seen over the past two days. We call for calm and we condemn any violence against those protesting peacefully, and we equally call on the Cuban Government to release anyone detained for peaceful protest."
SOT, Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson: "We are always considering options available to us that would allow us to support the Cuban people, to support their humanitarian needs, which are indeed profound, and they are profound because of not anything the United States has done, but from the actions and inactions, mismanagement, corruption of the Cuban regime."
SOT, Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson: "The other point I would make is that current US policy, the so-called embargo, it allows humanitarian goods to reach Cuba, and we do expedite any request to export humanitarian or medical supplies to the island. We regularly authorise the export of agricultural products, medicine, medical equipment, and humanitarian goods to Cuba. And we've authorised billions of dollars' worth of goods over the past couple decades, since the latest iteration of this has been in effect. But just in 2020 alone, we exported more than $175 million worth of goods to Cuba, including food and medicine, to help the Cuban people. In the first six months of 2021 alone, Cuba imported $123 million worth of, in this case, chicken from the United States."
SOT, Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson: "The pandemic has added an extra layer of pain and suffering onto the Cuban people as it has around the world, and we share the concern that the Cuban people have as they have faced an exponential rise in COVID cases across the island. Now, Cuba has made a sovereign decision regarding how it will address the pandemic, and that includes, in this case, the use of its own indigenously produced vaccine. Cuba, as you know, has not joined COVAX. The Cuban government could always decide to receive outside vaccine donations, but the Cuban Government has decided not to do so yet."
SOT, Ned Price, US State Department spokesperson: "We do provide economic support funds for democracy promotion programmes to Cuba on an annual basis, and that amount has been $20 million per year for several years now. And now these US-funded programs, they are - they do go to broadcast funding. They inform the Cuban public through support for independent media. They support Cubans to promote free expression in their communities. They increase access to information on democracy, participatory government, human rights, and market economics. They provide emergency and humanitarian assistance to human rights defenders and to political prisoners, and they prepare those who seek, who aspire, to have a voice in a free and democratic Cuba."
#Cuba #USA #Havana
Video ID: 20210714-002
Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20210714-002
Contact: cd@ruptly.tv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly
0 Comments