Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel criticized the repression of student protests in several American universities
14ymedio, Havana, May 3, 2024 — The Cuban regime is clear about its loyalties in the war in Gaza: Israel is an “occupying power” involved in a “brutal Zionist escalation”; Palestine, a “brother people,” which has sent “hundreds of students” to Cuba and with whom, since the time of Fidel Castro, the Island “has always stood in solidarity.”
These are the words of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel this Thursday, during a speech in which any mention of the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 was omitted. The president, who has offered his unconditional support to the Palestinian side, appeared before more than 1,100 delegates in a “meeting of solidarity” for Cuba and Palestine, “against the imperialism” of the United States and Israel. The highest point of his speech has been, however, his criticism of the repression of student protests at several American universities. As hundreds of Cuban activists have reminded him, his Government applies at home the violence it attributes to other police forces.
Wearing a Palestinian “kiffeyeh” (traditional scarf) around his neck – which he has worn in public since last October – Díaz-Canel said he felt like a “father” to all Palestinian students on the Island and gave the floor to Fernando González Llort, one of the five Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States in 1998, currently the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.
Since 2017, González Llort has been the regime’s man when it comes to organizing the groups of foreigners who participate in the mass celebrations, such as the May Day parade. During his speech, he said that the delegates invited to the congress “will be able to convey the truth of Cuba to their communities” and condemned “in energetic terms” the “Israeli genocide against the Palestinian civilian population.” He did not allude to Hamas.
During the meeting, a d
