MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2022) The Cuban government has again used repression against demonstrators, as it already did during the civil unrest in July of last year, a prominent international human rights organization said on Wednesday.
"In the latest wave of protests that have lasted several days, Cubans are exercising their simple but historically repressed rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Alarmingly, it seems the authorities are repeating the tactics of repression they used last year to detain and silence protesters, hundreds of whom remain in prison," the Americas director at Amnesty International, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said.
The Cuban government restricted access to the internet, as well as deployed the police and military to oppose the protests, the organization added.
According to local human rights group Justicia J11, 26 people were detained by law enforcement services since September 30, while 19 of them are still in detention, the organization noted.
"The international community must condemn the cycles of repression we are seeing in Cuba in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable for authorities to keep intimidating, threatening, detaining, stigmatizing, and attempting to silence anyone who demands necessities like electricity, food, and freedom," Guevara-Rosas added.
In late September, Cuba suffered from Hurricane Ian. The Caribbean island completely lost electricity, and two people died in the province of Pinar del Rio. Over 50,000 people in the western and central parts of the country were evacuated, and serious damage was caused to agriculture in these regions.
Electricity outages exacerbated violations of economic and social rights which led to protests in the country.
