Cuban President Accuses Washington Of Stoking Social Unrest; Biden Says US Stands With People Of Cuba

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has accused the US of attempting to stoke social unrest on the island, where violence broke out in several towns.

The president, who on Sunday called on loyalists "to take to the streets to defend the revolution", appeared on national TV again on Monday, accompanied by members of his cabinet and the politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), reports Xinhua news agency.

Diaz-Canel said he was taking "to clarify that a whole group of interests in recent weeks and in recent hours has tried to discredit the work of the government, to discredit the work of the revolution".

Diaz-Canel accused the US of seeking to stoke social unrest in Cuba when the country is experiencing its worst Covid-19 outbreak.

In response to the unrest and Diaz-Canel's call for solidarity, thousands of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday to show their support for the government.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said the United States supports the Cuban people and called their rare protests a “clarion call for freedom and relief” from the pandemic and generations of dictatorship.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.

The president’s response comes a day after massive protests erupted across cities and towns across Cuba, including Havana, calling for an end to the nation’s decades-old communist dictatorship. The demonstrations have been fuelled by a collapsing economy, food shortage and the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With IANS Inputs