Cuban Protesters Shut Down Highway, Demand Biden Take Action: ‘Joe Biden Should Help Us’

On Tuesday, Cuban-Americans desperate for help to free Cuba said it is time for U.S. President Joe Biden to do more than issue empty words about Cuban freedom. Hundreds of protesters blocked the Palmetto Expressway in…

IJR SyndicatedJul 14, 20214 min read

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“We have hope that we can have justice. We have hope that the U.S. will intervene so that our people can finally be free!” said Jorge Luis “Antúnez” García Pérez, a political prisoner in Cuba for 17 years, according to the Miami Herald. “The Cuban government needs to go to hell!”

Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, a member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance and spokesperson for the Cuban Democratic Directorate, said the Cuban people need support.

“God has simultaneously lifted up the people in 30 Cuban cities,” Gutierrez-Boronat said during a demonstration near a memorial to the Cubans killed during the communist regime of Fidel Castro. “Prayer is our only armor, our only weapon.”

A former Obama administration official said talk alone is not enough.

“The easy political thing to do is to issue demands for freedom from America while doing nothing,” said Ben Rhodes, a senior aide to former President Barack Obama, according to Politico.

“I just don’t think that’s the approach that’s going to be constructive here,” he said.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Biden has not gone far enough, given the president’s lukewarm comments supporting the protesters, according to NPR.

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The senator said America should provide free satellite internet access to ensure protesters can communicate with the outside world and said Biden should use this vaunted power of partnerships “to coordinate a strong rejection and condemnation of the repressive actions taken by the Communist regime against the unarmed people of Cuba.”

“We should make clear nothing is going to change,” Rubio said Monday during a Senate floor speech. “There’s not going to be any sanctions changed as a result of this — on the contrary. I hope the Biden administration will now announce they have finished their review of Cuba policy and everything that’s in place will stay in place.”

Activists who marched at the White House were desperate for any sign of response from the president.

“Mr. Biden, a bunch of us supported your cause, and now it’s your turn,” said protest leader Emilio Fajardo, according to the Washington Times. “We have the right to demand a little more firm action from the president.”

Fajardo said Biden needs to align himself with protest leaders in Cuba.

“The first thing the administration should be doing is establishing a conversation ,” he said. “That needs to be established because everybody knows that a revolution without a conscience is a perfect recipe for chaos.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.