Washington sanctions the Cuban Police for the repression

A man is arrested in a protest against the Cuban government. / AFP

The White House announces new punishments if “the communist regime” refuses to make “drastic changes” in its human rights policy

The United States has increased its sanctions against Cuba targeting the National Revolutionary Police (PNR). They will not be the last unless there are “drastic changes” in the communist regime, said the president, Joe Biden, meeting in the White House with Cuban-American leaders after the recent repression of the recent historical demonstrations in dozens of cities on the Caribbean island. The president insisted that the situation in Cuba is “intolerable. “We are taking concerted measures to advance the cause of the Cuban people,” he concluded.

The PNR, as well as its director, Oscar Callejas, and his deputy director, Eddy Sierra, are considered responsible for “repressing the peaceful and pro-democratic protests” that broke out on July 11. Accused of “serious human rights violations,” they have been banned from the US financial system under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows Washington to punish those who have committed human rights abuses or acts of corruption in other countries.

“The measure serves to hold accountable those responsible for suppressing the calls of the Cuban people for freedom and respect for human rights,” said the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury, Andrea Gacki.

FOREIGN COOPERATION:

• 630 tons of humanitarian aid from Mexico and Bolivia.
  Cuba has received more than 630 tons of humanitarian aid, 612 that arrived on a Mexican Navy ship and twelve that arrived on a plane from Bolivia, according to the Cubadebate portal yesterday. It is the first shipment with medical supplies and food, as well as powdered milk, beans, wheat flour, cans of tuna and cooking oil. Previously, the ‘José María Morelos II’ tanker arrived with 100,000 barrels of diesel fuel destined to supply energy to the island’s hospitals. “It is the reliable demonstration of the friendship that unites us, the cooperation that we have maintained for decades,” said Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca.

The Government of Havana deployed the PNR to “repress and attack the protesters,” said Tesoro spokespersons, noting that agents were photographed arresting members of the Movement of Mothers of 11-7, founded to organize the families of the prisoners and disappeared , and in Camagüey, a Catholic priest was beaten and detained while defending young protesters.

Fight against the “dictatorship”

On July 11 and 12, thousands took to the streets throughout Cuba claiming to be “hungry” and calling for the end of the “dictatorship”, amid the worst economic crisis on the island in decades and a sharp increase in infections and deaths from covid-19. The protests, unprecedented after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, left one dead and dozens injured.

Hundreds of people were arrested and many face charges of contempt, public disorder, vandalism and spread of the pandemic for allegedly marching without masks. At least 59 Cubans have been prosecuted for participating in the demonstrations, it was officially reported.

Cuba “forcefully” rejected the inclusion of the PNR and its executives “on spurious lists” in the United States, in a tweet by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez. “These arbitrary measures are added to disinformation and aggression to justify inhuman blockade against Cuba,” he wrote , alluding to Washington’s embargo against Havana that has been in force since 1962.

“The United States government is only interested in the electoral machinery of Florida,” the seat of the largest anti-Castro exile, he said, calling Biden’s meeting with Cuban-Americans a “farce.”

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source https://pledgetimes.com/washington-sanctions-the-cuban-police-for-the-repression/