Cuba announced on Wednesday it was temporarily lifting restrictions on the amount of food and medicine travelers could bring into the country, in an apparent small concession to demands by protesters who took to the street last weekend.
“This measure will take effect until December 31st,” Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said, according to Reuters.
The decision to facilitate the entry of necessities into the island came in response to a demand made by protesters who took to the streets after decades of suffocating economic blockade imposed by the United States on their country caused a severe shortage of food and medicine, and prompted the government to ration electricity for many hours a day.
A group of intellectuals and academics recently published an open letter calling on the authorities to take such action.
Cuba is experiencing a rise in the number of daily infections of Covid-19, amid a shortage of vaccinations available caused by the US sanctions and embargo.
Several hundreds of protesters rallied in the past couple of days, and were immediately backed by the US government and the counterrevolutionary Cuban exile community in Florida. In response, mass rallies by supporters of the Cuban government took place across the country, voicing out support for the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and its achievements over the decades, and condemning US imperialism against the island nation.
