Castro dictatorship's shock troops crackdown on hundreds of non-violent protesters in Caimanera, Guantánamo, Cuba

Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Díaz-Canel with UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan. Source: Estudios Revolución

"Cuba is committed to all human rights mechanisms," Díaz-Canel lied to UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan on May 5, 2023 during her visit to Havana, Cuba.

One of the human rights mechanisms recognized by the United Nations is the freedom of assembly and association. 

Diaz-Canel's lie was demonstrated a day later.

Hundreds of Cubans in the town of Caimanera in Guantánamo, Cuba took to the streets to demonstrate tonight. They shouted "Homeland and life", "Freedom" and "Long live human rights" demanding their human rights and freedom. 

Cubanet cited a local source in Cuba that "confirmed that the protests began around seven at night and up to the time of writing this note they were continuing. “First three men came out and began to demonstrate on Carretera street between José Martí and Correo, and the people joined them. We walked around Caimanera until we reached the park and passed the Communist Party headquarters, where no one came out because they are with the police."

According to this source, "the trigger for the protest, he indicated, is the lack of food and the precarious conditions of the health system. “After the five pounds of rice for the month are gone, we are eating bread with sugar. They are starving us while they live well." ... "In one of the videos that have come out of the demonstration, the people are heard shouting that they are hungry and that they do not believe in the excuse of the blockade. There is also a man who tells how he took his little son to the hospital and there was not even what was necessary to suture his wound."

Cubanet's Camila Acosta reported over Twitter at 11:24pm that Cuba had been without internet connection or telephone service in all of Cuba for more than an hour. She also said that "the last report indicated the arrival of special troops to suppress the protests."

Netblocks confirmed at 11:25pm that "Network data show a collapse in internet traffic in Cuba amid protests for freedom and human rights centering around Caimanera, Guantánamo; connectivity remains intermittent at present with partial restoration noted." 

Black Berets arrived in Caimanera, and violently ended the nonviolent protest during the shutdown of internet and telephone service.Video emerged after the internet black out was partially restored.

Will Alena Douhan reconsider her favorable remarks in light of these developments?

Considering that in her public remarks during her meeting with Diaz-Canel Ms. Douhan did not address his public call on July 11, 2021 for Cuban communists to violently put down nonviolent protests with what he called an "order of combat," hopes are not high.

This pessimism is underscored by Ms. Douhan's pattern of arguing that regimes like Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela are the victims and Western sanctions the culprit.

However, there is hope that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk will hold the Cuban government to account.

Regardless of what these UN officials do,  people of good will should send a message both to Havana and the international community by signing and sharing the petition to expel Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council.