reopen up relations with cuba. he didn t do that. and maybe he s glad now in the sense that these protests really seem to have spread almost from nowhere. there are limited tools. there are tools but we ve had sanctions for years, pressure campaigns on due baa for years. right now, there s a humanitarian crisis that involves both economic crisis and also the covid factor which i think is playing into these protests there. there s been blackouts on the island. so you know, the u.s. plays an outsized role whether it likes it or not in the fate of cuba. it s never been able to force regime change for decades. that s my question at the moment. how much do we know about the situation within? the foreign minister in cuba issued a statement. i ll read parts to make a point. there s no political or moral authority to speak with cuba. the government allocated money to promote subversion. it s a castro esque statement. the castros are gone. i guess that s my question.
floating away from cuba on boats. brian: rafts. steve: some have suggested these are the biggest protests since 1959 when the castros came into power. what s interesting, our federal government, rather than saying you know what? they just want freedom, they have got an interesting take on it julie chung the acting state department secretary said peaceful protests, that flies in the face of turning over the police car and the looting, peaceful protests are growing in cuba as the cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express, here s the good part concern about riding covid cases, the deaths and medicine shortages. we commend the numerous efforts of the cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need. what they re saying is people are angry about covid which, wait a minute, how many times have you heard that people say, you know, the great thing about socialized medicine, particularly in cuba, is everybody has got great
does the government have enough control? you castros with the personality, the infrastructure of the communist party. do we have a good sense of now that the castros are gone, can the government withstand these kind of things? look, i think that s the big question. when you see the repeatty and speed with which no one took hold. it reminds of the early arab spring moments coming almost from nowhere organized on social media platforms like facebook, on apps like telegram. is it sustainable? will it last? the cuban government has been engaged in a crackdown in recent months. that seems to have played into this as well. and you have an enormous political pressure on the biden administration from marco rubio, the republican of florida. and that s always a domestic political crisis as well as an international one when it s something involving cuba.
please expand on how shouting freedom is an an if i government slogan. brian: just a quick thing to add there you real lays if they would find a way to overthrow that regime whether a it would mean for other places? for example, cuba is up to no good through central and south america. especially in venezuela they have lethal and very confident intelligence forces inside venezuela. destabilizing that country and backing that dictator. if we could find a way to get some freedom and democracy in cuba and overthrow the last remnants of communism and the castros, this would have a ripple positive effect for the region. but, just they probably will not. ainsley: you don t think so? brian: not going to give up easily and what kind of retribution will there be for a brutal crack down. shut off the internet right away and go house to house and deny them their $10 a week that the government gives them. meanwhile, 9 minutes are a the top of the hour. matt damond does movies and
the police. we saw the government sending in their own counter protesters that said they supported the revo revolution, to try to drown out the anti-government protesters and cuba s president, the successor to the castros, said that the supporters of the revolution needed to take to the streets, needed to defend the revolution and he was giving them an order to flood the streets to defend their government. so, so far at least, despite these calls for change, unprecedented calls for change, the cuban government does not appear to be giving an inch. patrick oppmann, cnn, havana. of course we ll stay on top of what s happening in cuba. meantime in haiti, police say they arrested the man who orchestrated, they believe, the assassination of haiti s president. at the same time, the white house is sending what it calls a technical team to haiti to help with the investigation into this