human rights violations 

AP Havana

The United States government announced on Friday it was sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other top officials for human rights violations and restricting access to visas on the anniversary of the biggest protests on the island in recent decades.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X the State Dept would impose visa restrictions on Cuban judicial and prison officials “responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention and torture of the July 2021 protesters.” The protests, which were not led by an opposition group, developed July 11-12, 2021, drawing attention to the depths of Cuba’s economic crisis.

“The US will continue to stand for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Cuba, and make clear no illegitimate, dictatorial regimes are welcome in our hemisphere,” Rubio said. The Trump administration has taken a harder line against Cuba’s government than the Biden administration. Apart from Diaz-Canel, the US sanctioned Cuban Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas. 

Johana Tablada, deputy di­rector of the US dept in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, lash­ed out at Rubio, calling him a “defender of genocide, pri­sons and mass deportations.” The protests in 2021 came about after repeated blackouts in Havana and other cities. One man died and marches ended in vandalism.