Cuba summons top US diplomat, accuses US of stoking protests
- US urges Cuban government to ‘respect the human rights of the protesters’, prompting summons of US charge d’affaires
- On Sunday, Cubans staged rare street protests at several locations across island, over shortages of electricity, fuel and food
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Cuba’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the top US diplomat on the island to a meeting following protests on Sunday, accusing the US embassy in Havana of seeking to stoke a broader anti-government uprising and meddling in Cuba’s internal affairs.
Rallies in protest of oppressive, hours-long blackouts and food shortages erupted in at least five locations across the island on Sunday, including Cuba’s second largest city Santiago, state-run media said.
Those comments prompted Cuba’s foreign ministry to call charge d’affaires Benjamin Ziff to a meeting with deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, “who formally conveyed his firm rejection of the government’s interventionist behaviour and slanderous messages”, a statement from the ministry said.
![The US embassy in Havana, Cuba. Photo: AFP The US embassy in Havana, Cuba. Photo: AFP](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/19/6624bcaa-d7dd-4e81-b730-4cff3abd7f03_fc729661.jpg)
A US State Department spokesman said it was “absurd” to suggest Washington was behind the protests.
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