Cuba is facing its largest mass demonstrations in three decades. Thousands have taken to the streets in cities throughout the country, protesting against food shortages, high prices, and communist rule. Upon hearing of these events during the weekend, I could not find a single story on television covering the matter. Perhaps I need to change my cable provider? More importantly, this is a major human rights issue occurring just to our South, and domestic media is simply not covering the matter sufficiently. Kudos to some outlets some like Reuters, Guardian , NY Times, and CNN for starting to focus on the matter. I hope teenagers and college students that too often wear trendy tee-shirts of Che, an idealist but an admitted killer and human rights violator, will begin to think about human rights and democracy for our neighbor just 90 miles away.
I hope all those US academics (including many law professors) who took "solidarity" tours to Cuba to see "socialism" will now speak up in support of this burgeoning movement for democracy in Cuba. At the same time it is incumbent on the US government to lift all sanctions on the island country - sanctions only play into the hands of the authoritarian regime there.
Posted by: Stephen Diamond | July 12, 2021 at 01:15 PM
One of the remarkable aspects of the Cuban protests is that it was sparked, in part, by a popular Cuban hip hop song called "Patria y Vida." I blogged about this here: https://priorprobability.com/2021/07/12/monday-music-patria-y-vida/
Posted by: Enrique Guerra-Pujol | July 12, 2021 at 02:34 PM
La Muette de Portici by Daniel Auber supposedly sparked the Belgian Revolution of 1830.
Posted by: Scott Fruehwald | July 12, 2021 at 03:57 PM
Not surprisingly, little to no discussion of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba
Posted by: Patrick S. O'Donnell | July 12, 2021 at 06:06 PM
Of course, it was a hip hop song that caused the people of Cuba to realize their plight.
Posted by: anon | July 12, 2021 at 06:41 PM
Enrique, if you would like to send me the post, I can repost---Anon, you are a tough cookie---perhaps not the basis, but maybe it became the match...??? I am unfamiliar with the song or the freedom movement---that is the term I hear in all videos--"Libertad"-freedom. Powerful to witness. Steven, I appreciate your position. I am more conservative than you on the embargo--I do not believe the embargo was ever effective because the U.S. was largely the only country, at least for the last several decades, enforcing it.
Posted by: Ediberto Roman | July 13, 2021 at 08:01 AM