(Havana) Cuba on Tuesday accused the United States of “interventionism and interference”, after the publication of the annual report of the American State Department on human rights which denounces the prison sentences against participants in the July 2021 anti-government protests.
“The slander against Cuba by the United States government in its 2022 report on human rights is unacceptable,” reacted on Twitter the head of Cuban diplomacy, Bruno Rodriguez.
“With its shameful history of (human rights) violations and abuses against its own citizens, it should refrain from stigmatizing others,” Rodriguez continued. “They are trying in vain to conceal their attitude of interventionism and interference,” he added.
The US State Department released its annual human rights report on Monday in which it describes Cuba as an “authoritarian state”. The text denounces “illegal and arbitrary executions”, “acts of torture and cruel treatment” against dissidents and imprisoned demonstrators.
During the presentation of the report, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced the “draconian prison sentences” imposed on “hundreds of people who demonstrated for their rights”.
On July 11 and 12, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets of the island to cries of “Freedom” and “We are hungry”.
These unprecedented demonstrations have left one dead, dozens injured and more than a thousand people have been arrested, according to the Miami-based human rights organization Cubalex.
According to the authorities, at least 490 demonstrators have been definitively sentenced, sometimes to terms of up to 25 years in prison. Human rights organizations estimate that a few dozen of them are still awaiting their final sentencing.
The Cuban government, which regularly denounces the American sanctions and the reinforcement of the embargo against the communist island in force since 1962, affirms that the demonstrations of July 2021 were orchestrated from Washington.