As Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Cubans on the island condemned the Havana dictatorship’s support for Vladimir Putin.
While democratic countries decried the brutal aggression of the Russian forces against the Ukrainians, Miguel Díaz-Canel has sided with the attacks, as have the Nicolás Maduro and the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Cuban opposition leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesperson for the Arco Progresista party and vice president of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, questioned on Twitter the support of Western Hemisphere’s leftist regimes for Russia.
“What does the revolutionary left in this hemisphere say in the face of #Putin’s criminal attempt to destroy and appropriate #Ukraine? Does the right to national existence depend on ideology? Behind anti-Americanism, this left hides its weakness for #China and #Russia,” Cuesta Morúa said.
Other social media users highlighted the Castro regime’s double standards by supporting the start of a war in Europe.
In the hours following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cubans have expressed their opinions on the subject. Many interviewed by Radio Martí have said that the deployment of Russian troops violates the sovereignty of Ukraine.
“I believe that this invasion should not take place, because everyone is the owner of their sovereignty,” said Alberto Hernández, a resident of Havana’s neighborhood of Lawton, during an interview with Radio Martí.
Yoel Parsons, a resident of Havana, pointed out that this is an abuse by Vladimir Putin, highlighting that the support of the Castro leadership is outrageous. “Everyone here is against the war. Everyone knows that this is an abuse of Russia. Regarding the support of Cuba, nobody understands this… how is it possible that Cuba, which has always spoken against the war, against the exercises and actions of the United States, who has had many more reasons to go to war, many more than those that Russia is having against Ukraine, which at this point aren’t visible… Many people here say that the problem is that Russia is Cuba’s master,” Parsons said.
Cuban journalist Yoani Sánchez also criticized the Cuban regime’s double standards on invasions of other nations. “In 1968 Fidel Castro applauded the entry of Soviet tanks into Prague; now Miguel Díaz-Canel does not condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine… and the official press justifies it based on ‘security’ reasons,” Sánchez said via Twitter.