Thousands of Cubans have taken to the streets calling for the government to act as the country endures its worst economic crisis in decades. A double whammy of Trump-era sanctions and the pandemic has led to skyrocketing prices and food/medicine shortages. Cuba is also seeing a spike in COVID cases, and there’s discontent about the government’s handling of the pandemic, including the slow pace of the vaccine rollout with 15% of the population fully vaccinated. Ahem… President Miguel Díaz-Canel has hit back at a show of support for the protestors from a top US diplomat, claiming the protests were planned by US-backed mercenaries seeking to destabilise the country. A tightly-controlled Communist country, these are the biggest anti-government protests Cuba has seen for decades.