Amnesty International has written to Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne regarding to ongoing protests in Cuba.
Since the beginning of these demonstrations, Amnesty International has received with alarm reports of internet blackouts, arbitrary arrests, and excessive use of force – including police firing on demonstrators. We continue to receive reports that there is a long list of missing persons and of other repressive measures against demonstrators.
Since 2019, the Cuban population has been facing shortages of food, medicine and fuel, a situation that has intensified over the past year, mainly due to COVID-19. These shortages are in part to the longstanding embargo imposed by the United States. The embargo does hinder the Cuban Government’s ability to respond to this crisis, as Amnesty
International has said for decades, and as United Nations experts and others have highlighted. However, the existence of the embargo is no justification for the Cuban authorities’ repressive response to the protests on Sunday.
Amnesty International has also written to representatives at the Cuban and United States Embassies.
