Decades after first placing Cuba under embargo, Washington has warned Havana that its number is up. US President Joe Biden has slapped sanctions on several Cuban officials, declaring \u201cthis is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden has sanctioned the Cuban minister of defense Alvaro Lopez Miera and the \u201cBoinas Negras\u201d<\/em> or black berets, a Special National Brigade within the Ministry of the Interior, citing their alleged role in repressing \u201cpeaceful, pro-democratic protests\u201d<\/em> starting July 11. The Biden administration warned it will continue to impose sanctions as punishment \u201cto hold them accountable for their actions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis is just the beginning \u2013 the United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for oppression of the Cuban people,\u201d<\/em> Biden declared in an official announcement. The Cuban embassy has not responded in an official capacity as of Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n Protests have reportedly taken place across some 40 cities in Cuba so far this month. The US response was organized Wednesday night, via conference call, in coordination with Cuban-American activists in Miami who had been \u201ccalling for more action ever since the July 11 uprisings on the island,\u201d<\/em> according to Politico.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear which activists took part in the negotiations or what sort of political authority they actually have, if any, however. While the Biden administration claimed to have engaged \u201cCuban American activists and leaders,\u201d<\/em> at least one of these leaders, Sasha Tirador, has been investigated<\/a> in the past for election fraud.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s Cuban-American mayor, Francis Suarez, had been urging the Biden administration to unleash airstrikes on Havana, suggesting the country \u201cliberate\u201d<\/em> Cuba the way it had \u201cliberated\u201d<\/em> Panama or Afghanistan or Yugoslavia, with a coup or maybe some \u201chumanitarian\u201d<\/em> bombing.<\/p>\n The Biden administration\u2019s Cuban liaisons even want to expand the Magnitsky Act, which \u2013 as Tirador gleefully put it \u2013 \u201cwill hold each individual who violates human rights on the island of Cuba accountable.\u201d However, Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) poured cold water on Biden\u2019s muscle-flexing by noting that most Cuban officials are already under sanctions. Indeed, the whole country is under an embargo, and sanctions<\/a> won\u2019t deliver the usual punch.<\/p>\n Rubio suggested Biden could restore the internet to the Cuban people, deploying high altitude balloons \u2013 though the utility of the plan was deemed questionable, as others brainstormed more workable possibilities for reestablishing an internet connection to the island. Onlookers were less than enthusiastic about Biden\u2019s special plan to free Cuba, though.<\/p>\n Journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared to compare the likely outcome to the blood left on Washington\u2019s hands following the Arab Spring, after Biden tweeted his condemnation of \u201cmass detentions and sham trials that are the Cuban regime\u2019s efforts to threaten the Cuban people into silence,\u201d hinting that such behavior was more in line with US allies like Riyadh than Havana.<\/p>\n This was probably posted after Biden got out of a meeting where Ron Klain ordered more arms, money and surveillance tech be sent to the allied-despots in Cairo and Riyadh to kill dissidents, arrest journalists and gun down protesters in the street.But Biden will free Cuba! https:\/\/t.co\/IeNoBvntEl<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 22, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n PressTV correspondent Wyatt Reed noted a disparity between US ally Colombia, where millions had hit the street in protest, and Cuba, where the protesters numbered in the thousands. Reminding US media that Cuban police hadn\u2019t killed any protesters \u2013 only to be be sanctioned for their restraint \u2013 he pointed out that Colombia had reportedly killed at least 44, adding that the violence was not only ongoing but had been blithely overlooked by the US, which didn\u2019t seem to take offense at the deaths of the protesters at all.<\/p>\n Can you spot the difference? Colombia Cuba# of protesters 1,000,000s 1,000s# killed by police 44+ 0Still happening \u2705 \u274cUS sanctions \u274c \u2705 pic.twitter.com\/Wmw4WuPLrr<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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