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Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar issued a stern warning to the Cuban regime following the act of repudiation against the head of the U.S. mission in Havana, Mike Hammer, during his visit to the city of Camagüey.
In a message posted on her X account, Salazar expressed her "full solidarity" with Hammer and described the attack as "a cowardly ambush ordered by the Cuban dictatorship."
The legislator denounced that the so-called "acts of repudiation" are "political attacks directed by the regime's repressive apparatus."
"A dictatorship that needs mobs to survive has little time left. The United States will not allow the normalization of state terror against an American diplomat. They are playing with fire," wrote the congresswoman from Florida.
The incident occurred this Saturday at the Santa María Hotel, located in the Plaza del Gallo in Camagüey, where Hammer was confronted by a crowd mobilized by local authorities.
The verbal aggression occurred during a widespread blackout that plunged the historic center of the city into darkness.
Witnesses to the event recorded the insults directed at the diplomat, including "Donald Trump's puppet," "imperialist," "murderer," and "get out of Camagüey."
The videos were shared by journalist Mario J. Pentón and activists Irma Lidia Broek and José Raúl Gallego.
One day prior, Hammer had been the target of a similar incident in the city of Trinidad, where a group of people insulted him outside the San Francisco de Paula Church, following a meeting with the priest and activist José Conrado Rodríguez.
The diplomat then stated that those hurling insults “do not represent the Cuban people” and asserted that his visit aims to meet “everyday Cubans and hear their aspirations for a better Cuba.”
The new act of repudiation in Camagüey reignited criticism of the harassment tactics employed by the Cuban regime against opponents, journalists, and now foreign diplomats.
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