{"id":38741,"date":"2021-08-13T15:45:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T22:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=38741"},"modified":"2021-08-13T21:46:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T04:46:08","slug":"sanctioning-cuban-officials-in-response-to-violence-against-peaceful-protestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=38741","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioning Cuban Officials in Response to Violence against Peaceful Protestors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>08\/13\/2021 06:37 PM EDT<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, the United States imposed sanctions on Cuban military and security leaders and units in response to the Cuban regime\u2019s violent suppression of peaceful protesters on and after July 11.\u00a0 Today, we are enacting additional sanctions in connection with this repression.\u00a0 We take this action pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.<\/p>\n<p>We are designating Rom\u00e1rico Vidal Sotomayor Garc\u00eda, chief of the Political Directorate of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT); Pedro Orlando Mart\u00ednez Fern\u00e1ndez, chief of the Political Directorate of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police (PNR); and the Tropas de Prevenci\u00f3n (TDP) of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR).<\/p>\n<p>Sotomayor Garc\u00eda\u2019s and Mart\u00ednez Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s \u201cPolitical Directorates\u201d are tasked by the Cuban government with maintaining loyalty within the ranks of their organizations to the Cuban Communist Party.\u00a0 MININT forces, including the PNR, carried out violent repression of peaceful protestors calling for human rights and fundamental freedoms across Cuba.\u00a0 Indeed, the First Secretary of the Party and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel called the Party faithful to \u201ccombat\u201d against protestors.<\/p>\n<p>The TDP, also known as \u201cBoinas Rojas\u201d or Red Berets, is a unit of MINFAR\u2019s Directorate for Counterintelligence.\u00a0 During the recent protests, TDP soldiers have been deployed on the streets and have reportedly<em>\u00a0<\/em>attacked and beaten protesters, while making violent arrests.<\/p>\n<p>We stand in solidarity with the courageous Cubans who are protesting for human rights and fundamental freedoms, exercising their rights in the face of repeated oppression and abuse from the Cuban regime.\u00a0 The Cuban people deserve the ability to safely protest against an authoritarian regime and the failed system that has denied them access to basic necessities for decades.<\/p>\n<p>The United States supports the people of Cuba in their brave call for freedom as we identify those who oppress them and attempt to maintain a repressive system. We will continue to take actions to promote accountability for the Cuban government\u2019s human rights abuses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>08\/13\/2021 06:37 PM EDT &nbsp; Antony&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38742,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741\/revisions\/38742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}