Cuba lifts food, medicine customs restrictions after protests
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, Reuters reported.
Thousands joined a wave of nationwide protests over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the government's handling of a surge in COVID-19 infections on Sunday, in the most significant unrest in decades in the Communist-run country.
The government blamed the unrest on U.S.-financed "counter-revolutionaries" exploiting hardship caused by the decades-old U.S. trade embargo that Washington tightened in the midst of the pandemic, pushing the Cuban economy to the brink.
Several countries and the United Nations have called on the government to respect citizens' right to express themselves. Others like Mexico have said the best way to help the Cuban people would be for the United States to ease sanctions.