A human-rights group in Miami says it has identified at least 20 Cubans accused of taking part in crackdowns on protesters, harassing dissidents or collaborating with the government’s state security who recently arrived in the United States during the latest exodus from the island. The group includes police and Interior Ministry officers, two government prosecutors, officials in charge of the controversial government medical missions abroad, a university professor, a state media reporter and several alleged informants or collaborators of the Cuban government’s state security.

President Biden is meeting with Cuban American activists at the White House Friday, after weeks of Cubans taking to the streets to protest their communist government leadership. Shortly before the meeting, the Treasury Department announced new sanctions against the Cuban police force and its leaders for cracking down on protesters. 

Artemio and Marlen Garcia left Miami at 5:30 am on Sunday to arrive in Washington shortly before a midnight vigil to mark the 26th of July.

The purpose of their journey, complete with Cuban flags and honking all along I-95, was to raise awareness for pro-democracy protests that broke out throughout Cuba on July 11th and to pressure the Biden administration into action.

“People need help,” Marlen Garcia, 60, said. “The Cuban government needs pressure, like America and other countries did with apartheid South Africa.”

When a video emerged from Cuba’s unprecedented anti-regime demonstrations this month of a Havana protester waving the American flag, the political right in the United States was quick to seize on the display as proof that Cubans hate communism and want American-style freedom.

Some on social media juxtaposed the image of the Cuban waving the Stars and Stripes with scenes of American protesters burning flags at last summer’s police brutality and anti-racism demonstrations.

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to slap targeted individual sanctions on Cuba regime officials and entities, bucking the progressive voices in his own party who called for an end to the embargo.

The sanctions target Alvaro Lopez Miera, the head of the armed forces in Cuba, and the Cuban Ministry of the Interior’s Special National Brigade, known as the "black berets," for their involvement in the crackdown after historic protests in more than 40 cities across the island.

Members of the Florida Cuban community are boarding planes and riding buses to rally in DC this Saturday, 5 PM, in front of the White House. Their stated mission is to raise awareness in Washington for the ongoing plight in the island country.

Many started gathering on Friday evening in anticipation of the Saturday rally. “They are not asking for food – that they need it – they are not asking for medicine – that they need it, too – they are not even asking for medical attention, that they need it. They are asking for freedom,” one woman said to Breitbart News.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro claimed in a tweet Monday that the White House suggested that “this liberty movement [in Cuba] is solely about lack of vaccines and US sanctions.”

This tweet came after Biden administration official  Julie Chung, who is the  acting assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairstweeted that the protesters are acting to “express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed the “absurdly cruel” U.S. embargo of Cuba on Thursday for the nation’s turmoil, singling out “Trump-era restrictions” on the socialist state as driving the unrest.

In her first formal statement responding to the protests that have rocked Havana’s Communist dictatorship, the Bronx Congresswoman says she backed the protesters. In a statement posted on Twitter, she then laid out where the blame should be laid:

She said the repressive Havana regime was not the only cause of the island nation’s troubles:

Cuba says it will allow travellers arriving in the country to bring in food, medicine and other essentials without paying import duties.

The announcement was made following the biggest anti-government protests on the Communist-run island in decades.

Thousands took to the streets on Sunday to protest over food and medicine shortages, price increases and the government's handling of Covid-19.

There will be no limit on such goods brought in by travellers from Monday.

Black Lives Matter has been accused of hypocrisy by ignoring the pleas for help from Cuba’s oppressed citizens — instead blaming the violent protests on US opposition to the Communist “revolution.”

The protest group — founded by “trained Marxists” — released a statement that completely ignored the mass calls demanding “freedom” from the oppressive Cuban regime as well as widespread reports of police brutality and arrests.