All Out to Support Revolutionary Cuba
Statement from the Embassy of the
Republic of Cuba in Canada
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez speaking to people in the streets of San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa, Cuba, July 11, 2021
On Sunday, July 11, 2021, incidents took place in some parts of Cuba.
It was not a “social outburst,” but demonstrations on a limited scale in which people with legitimate concerns participated. However, provocative and criminal elements took advantage of the situation to commit in some places acts of vandalism and violence against entities, headquarters of organizations and shopping centers, attacking workers, officials, law enforcement officers and police cars. Unfortunately, one person died in one of these incidents.
![]() Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Canada |
These events were the result of a political and media operation that was not at all spontaneous, but organized and financed from within the territory of the United States. They did not receive the support of the majority of the Cuban people nor of the majority of Cubans living abroad.
This operation was intended to create instability and present a collapsed country in chaos, and to this end was accompanied by a fierce media campaign, which relied on the ill-intentioned use of social media and the propagation of false news and manipulated information about the true Cuban reality. Its aim was to provoke a social explosion and justify a foreign intervention, at a time when Cuba faces great challenges.
In the last year and half, Cuba and its people have been hit hard by the double negative impact of the pandemic — and its most recent outbreak — and by the unprecedented tightening of the illegal and inhumane sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the Cuban people, even in the midst of the health emergency caused by COVID-19.
All this, together with the effects of the current world recession on commodity prices, the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector and our own internal deficiencies, has seriously affected the normal functioning of the Cuban economy, by drastically reducing income from exports of goods and services, and access to fuel, food, medicines and medical supplies.
The U.S. government has a high responsibility in these events and the financing of millions of dollars that it allocates annually to the creation of groups that promote internal disorder, and carry out provocations and acts against institutions is public knowledge.
The plan that led to the incidents of July 11 has failed.
The Cuban state and government and its institutions are in full control of the situation.
Today, peace and tranquility prevail in Cuba. The institutions continue to function normally, under the conditions imposed by the sanitary measures implemented due to the pandemic.
The government has taken the necessary measures to guarantee the peace and tranquility of the citizens, and has made a call to solve the existing difficulties among Cubans, without external interference, in order to make as much progress as possible in the sectors currently affected by the unilateral sanctions of the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic and our own internal problems.
Controlling the spread of COVID-19 continues to be a priority, in the context of the most recent wave that has led to an increase in positive cases, although the fatality rate of the disease is 0.68 per cent, one of the lowest in the world.
The first Cuban vaccine candidate with proven efficacy, “Abdala,” of a total of five developed by Cuban scientists, has already been approved for emergency use as a vaccine. Mass vaccination of the Cuban population has begun and more than eight million doses have been administered.
From outside Cuba, dangerous and irresponsible calls are being made for acts of sabotage and selective assassinations, and elected officials in the state of Florida, United States, are calling for military intervention, which would have unforeseeable consequences for regional peace and security.
Cuba rejects any act of interference in its internal affairs, and reiterates its right to defend its integrity and sovereignty. Any attempt to alter the peace and constitutional order will have a proportional response, in accordance with the Cuban legislation and international law.
Cuba has always been and will continue to be a country of peace and a promoter of solidarity and well-being for all the peoples of the world.
(Ottawa, July 20, 2021)