"I came to support the young and the people of Cuba, who, for the first time in sixty years, have the courage to express their discontent and suffering from all these years of pressure and not being able to decide over their own lives... which could have been the case for me too. All Cubans must reflect and support those who are fighting at this very moment", Annia Mercedes Sariol Albert said to RTL.
Annia is one of about a hundred Cubans who moved to the Grand Duchy. Nevertheless, she still has a strong attachment to the Caribbean island, which is located about 145 kilometres from Florida, and is home to 11 million inhabitants.
Brought to desperation by both the sanitary and economic crises, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in numerous cities on 11 and 12 July, with cries including "We are hungry", "Down with this dictatorship", or "Liberty" filling the air. One protestor was killed, with hundreds arrested.
Despite a series of measures taken by the communist government as an act of reconciliation, such as facilitating the import of food and medicine, hundreds of Cubans, including Annia, voiced their dismay on Saturday afternoon in Paris during a spontaneous protest: "We support the people of Cuba who demand liberty and who are dying right now."
Protestors gathered outside of the Cuban embassy in Paris. Following the uproar on the island, "people were thrown in jail, others disappeared, and others were tortured, explained Orel, a 51-year-old Cuban living in Paris.
In his eyes, the insurrectionist events from 11 and 12 July "reflect the general situation of a people that has been losing more and more freedom over the past twenty years. The state controls the lives of its citizens."
The situation is not merely due to regular shortages of certain foods, hygiene products, or even medicine, according to Svéinn Graas, president of the association Amistad Luxemburgo-Cuba.
He explained: "The situation around Covid has worsened over the past couple of weeks, and the criminal blockade held up by the United States for close to sixty years renders it almost impossible to import primary goods. The Trump Administration significantly reinforced this blockade, and contrary to what certain people had hoped for, the Biden Administration has not eased anything."
The shortages linked to the embargo only partially explain the recent unrests, according to Graas, who demands the immediate end to the blockade "so that Cuba can breathe again!"
Annia believes that "it cannot go on any longer. A solution needs to be found so that it is no longer the people who are punished. The Cuban government needs to listen to the suffering of its citizens and start a dialogue. Same as it needs to wake up to the fact that a dialogue needs to begin with the United States".
The embargo in question has been in place since 1962.
Since the unrests, Washington and Havana have not stopped blaming each other. According to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the United States encouraged and financed the demonstrations. On Saturday, he denounced the "lies" around the troubles on the island during a "revolutionary reaffirmation" meeting, which took place in the presence of Raul Castro and before thousands of supporters who had gathered on the Malecon, Havana's famed oceanfront boulevard.
"What the world is seeing from Cuba right now is a lie", President Diaz-Canel declared. He further denounced the sharing of "false images" on social media networks, where "the destruction of goods is being encouraged and glorified." The rally took place six days after the historic protests agains the communist government.
US President Biden put out a strong response on Thursday, stating that the "Cuban government is weakening and oppressing its citizens". He further expressed his willingness to send Covid-19 vaccines to the island state, where an international organisation could administer them.
Cuba is currently going through its worst phase since the beginning of the outbreak.
