MIAMI – Friday marks four years since the SOS Cuba protests broke out on the island nation on July 11, 2021, and a new exhibit is now on display at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami to honor those protests.
Thousands of Cubans took to the streets on July 11 and July 12, 2021, voicing grievances against shortages of goods, rising prices and power cuts, and some protesters called for a change of government.
Internet and cellphone data service was disrupted during the protests and the immediate days after.
The Cuban government blamed Cuban Americans using social media, accusing them of instigating unrest in Cuba.
The demonstrations in several cities and towns were some of the biggest displays of antigovernment sentiment seen in years in tightly controlled Cuba, which at the time was also facing a surge of coronavirus cases as it struggled with its worst economic crisis in decades as a consequence of U.S. sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The SOS Cuba protests motivated protesters to march in Hialeah, Little Havana, and even on highways in Miami-Dade County.
“These protests marked the beginning of the end of the dictatorship,” Marcel Felipe, of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, said. “The opposition has always been steadfast, but July 11th is when it went beyond the opposition and every neighbor in every town in Cuba rose up in unison, and we all knew that we weren’t alone.”
According to the exhibition, there are currently 1,100 political prisoners in Cuba and more than 500 people have been convicted for participating in the protests.