US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Cuban government's "brutal crackdown against its ain radical 5 years agone is yet different reminder of the unsocial misery and evil that is innate to the communist system".
"Otero Alcántara's lone 'crime' was refusing to enactment soundless and utilizing his creation to request the basal freedoms mundane Cubans person been denied for astir 7 decades," helium said successful a statement.
The cases of Otero Alcántara and fellow SIM subordinate Maykel Castillo, known arsenic "Osorbo", who is serving an eight-year situation sentence, person been a recurring root of diplomatic hostility betwixt Washington and Havana.
That hostility has swelled successful caller months, with the Trump medication hitting Cuba with an lipid blockade, sanctions and openly threatening subject intervention.
Last week the BBC's US quality spouse CBS reported that the Pentagon was looking astatine subject options successful Cuba, though it quoted officials arsenic saying the briefings did not mean immoderate determination to transportation retired an cognition had been made.
The US lipid blockade has exacerbated an ongoing substance crisis, with Cubans facing extended blackouts and nutrient shortages successful caller months.
The US besides announced successful May an unprecedented execution indictment against erstwhile Cuban person Raúl Castro, implicit the 1996 downing of 2 planes, an incidental that killed 4 people. Russia and China condemned the move.
Tourism has taken a large hit amid the US sanctions, with less than 360,000 radical visiting the land successful the archetypal 5 months of 2026, a alteration of astir 60% compared to the aforesaid play past year, according to Onei.
Washington warned successful May that a peaceful statement with the Caribbean federation was unlikely.
English (US)·