The US State Department announced Saturday that it will place travel restrictions on 28 Cuban officials for their role in suppressing anti-government protests on July 11, 2021.
The restrictions will suspend”the entry of non-immigrants to the United States of officials and employees of the Cuban Government and the Communist Party of CubaAccording to a statement released this morning by the State Department and signed by the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken.
Although the announcement does not reveal the identity of the people who will be affected by these sanctions, it specifies that they are “high-level members” of the Communist Party of Cuba“responsible for determining national and provincial policies.”
The Secretary of State accuses officials of allowing or facilitating police violence and the arrest of hundreds of protesters.
Also included in the travel restrictions are a number of employees “working in the communication and media sectors of the State and who formulate and implement policies that restrict the ability of Cubans to freely access and share information,” according to the State Department.
This is not the first time the United States has imposed visa restrictions on Cuban officials for their role in suppressing the July 11 protests.
In January, the State Department made a similar announcement that affected eight other employees, whose identities were also not disclosed.
On July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in the largest anti-government protest since the 1959 revolutioncomplaining about the lack of food and medicine, the regime responding with repression.
What began as a peaceful demonstration in the streets of Havana quickly turned into a protest movement that spread to other cities and even across borders, with hundreds of police arrests and shootings of activists and dissidents.
“Down with the dictatorship.” Thousands demonstrate in the streets of Cuba against the government. President asks supporters to take to the streets to “fight”
Source: Observadora
