Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called on supporters to fight in the streets as anti-government protests grow
In a TV address, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called on his supporters to fight in the streets.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets calling on Díaz-Canel to resign.
The demonstrators are unhappy with economic woes and a surge in COVID-19 infections.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called on his supporters to take to the streets and fight amid ongoing anti-government protests in the country.
"The order to fight has been given - into the street, revolutionaries!" Díaz-Canel said during a TV speech on Monday, the BBC reported.
"We call on all the revolutionaries of the country, all the communists, to go out in the streets where these provocations will occur, from now on and in the next few days. And to face them in a decisive, firm, and courageous way," he added, i24 News reported.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets over the weekend, calling on Díaz-Canel to resign in the largest protests in the country in decades, Reuters reported.
The anti-government protesters have grown frustrated with ongoing economic troubles in the country, which are the worst since the fall of the Soviet Union, the report said. People in Cuba have reported difficulty accessing basic goods while the government clamps down on civil liberties and COVID-19 infections surge, the report said.
Cuba reported nearly 7,000 new COVID-19 cases and 47 deaths from the disease on Sunday - a record amid protesters' calls to ramp up the nation's vaccination effort, the BBC reported.
In his televised address on Monday, Díaz-Canel said the anti-government protests were led by mercenaries hired by the US in an attempt to destabilize Cuba, the BBC reported. He also blamed US-led social-media campaigns, Reuters said.
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