Psaki: Cuba's 'Spontaneous Protests Triggered by Government Repression

Published on Jul 12, 2021
White House press secretary Jen Psaki says there is no new policy from the Biden administration toward Haiti in the wake of the killing of President Jovenel Moïse. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security met on Sunday with interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled Senate whom supporters have named as provisional president in a challenge to Joseph. "What was clear from their trip is that there is a lack of clarity about the future of political leadership," Psaki told reporters The meeting was meant “to encourage open and constructive dialogue to reach a political accord that can enable the country to hold free and fair elections,” according to a statement from the White House National Security Council. Large contingents of Cuban police patrolled the capital of Havana on Monday following protests around the island nation against food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis. Cuba's president said the demonstrations were stirred up on social media by Cuban-Americans in the United States. Denying that claim, Psaki said "there's every indication that yesterday's protests were spontaneous expressions of people who are exhausted with the Cuban government's economic mismanagement and repression." Many young people took part in the Sunday protests in Havana, which disrupted traffic until police moved in after several hours and broke up the march when a few protesters threw rocks. Drug maker Pfizer was meeting with top U.S. health officials on Monday to discuss its request for federal authorization of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine.