The Head of State asserted in a radio television hook-up last night that the Cuban people are acting with courage, bravery and fearlessness to confront the destabilization plans that incited the riots that took place on July 11.

We call for harmony, unity, responsibility, solidarity and love, he said, in the face of the campaign of lies that includes threats, defamations and instigations to murder launched from social media.

They do not want citizens’ peace with which people live in Cuba, in community, in the neighborhood, where residents coexist and help each other, the President stressed.

Where are the thousands of dead and thousands of missing people in Cuba, he questioned, while acknowledging the death of one person during incidents in the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera, an event under investigation.

He said the media offensive included the opportunist launching of the hashtag SOS Matanzas, when that western Cuban province was facing the worst outbreak of Covid-19 ever recorded on the island.

Diaz-Canel wondered why such calls were not launched when the United States and Europe were facing high incidence of Covid-19.

Why no SOS for African or Latin American countries, the region most affected by the pandemic, he said.

He argued that the intention was to provoke outbreaks on the island and that is why the SOS Matanzas was turned off when last Sunday’s incidents took place.

The Cuban president emphasized that Matanzas has the full support of the government, which applied measures and solutions to face the health situation.

A team of leaders from the government, the Cuban Communist Party and other organizations were sent to Matanzas, and in less than a month and a half the president and the prime minister visited it, he recalled.

Government decisions also led to the arrival of medical brigades to reinforce primary health care, in addition to the conversion of hotels into assistance centers in the face of Covid-19, the President added.

mh/msm/ool