Cuba reopens doors to tourism as opponents call for protests

Cuba on Monday reopened schools and borders to international tourism, just as opposition groups called for protests for greater political freedoms, which has caused a tense struggle between the government and its critics.

A group of dissidents have been asking for a “Civic March for Change“After the street protests of July 11, the largest anti-government demonstrations in the country in decades.

The communist government has banned the demonstrations planned for Monday, saying they are part of a destabilization campaign in the United States, which maintains an embargo from the time of the Cold War against Cuba. US officials have rejected it.

Residents across the island commented that there were no major demonstrations until noon, but dissidents continued their calls on social media to launch protests at 3 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT) in 10 Cuban cities, from the capital. Havana to Pinar del Río and Guantánamo, at the eastern end.

In Havana, there was an increase in plainclothes and uniformed police officers, although the streets seemed quieter than normal as some parents left their children at home out of fear following rumors of demonstrations.

“I decided to keep my six-year-old at home from his first day at school because I was worried something might happen,” said the state worker. Jennifer Puyol Vendesia, from Havana.

The protests planned Sunday by a Facebook group called Archipelago, which has spearheaded the call, failed under pressure from authorities and government supporters.

Government supporters surrounded the Havana home of Yunior García, a playwright and leader of the Archipelago, on Sunday to prevent him from marching, as he had planned, with a white rose in hand to show support for the peaceful demonstrations.

Reuters tried to reach Garcia and his wife on Monday, but they did not answer their phones. Garcia’s neighborhood was quiet and his building was still covered in Cuban flags that government supporters had hung from the roof the day before.

Garcia and other dissidents asked Cubans to applaud in support Sunday afternoon and to bang on pans at night, although residents of Havana and several provincial cities said their neighborhoods were quiet.

The announced date of the protests, the same day that tourism and schools are reopened, struck a chord in the Government. State security and pro-government groups monitored the homes of high-profile dissidents since early Monday, according to rights groups and reports on social media.

On Monday morning, Saily González, another archipelago leader, posted on Facebook a video of government supporters calling her a traitor and warning her not to march in front of her home in Santa Clara, in the center of the country.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, condemned on Sunday the “intimidation tactics” of the Government of Cuba before the march announced for Monday and promised that Washington would seek to “settle accounts” for the repression.

Meanwhile, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez asked on Twitter that the United States stay out of Cuban affairs.

“There will be no protests because people are afraid that we will be repressed,” said Eunice Pulles, dressed in a white blouse to show her support for the dissident group, on a Havana street.