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The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, commemorated this Saturday the fifth anniversary of the protests on July 11, 2021, with an official statement published by the State Department in which he demanded the immediate release of all Cuban political prisoners and warned that Washington will use "all the tools at its disposal" to promote economic and political reforms on the island.
Rubio described the regime's response to the 2021 protests as a brutal repression of Cubans who were demanding basic rights, dignity, and opportunities.
"Hundreds of Cubans remain unjustly detained, suffering brutal conditions, for the simple offense of asking why Cubans cannot have their own businesses, participate in the political process, or provide for themselves and their families," said the Secretary of State.
The head of U.S. diplomacy also directly addressed the island's economic situation. "After decades of repression and poor management, Cuba's economy is in free fall, and its people continue to suffer from blackouts, hunger, and deprivation," he wrote in his statement.
Rubio stated that the Trump administration has offered the Cuban regime humanitarian aid, assistance for reconstruction, and the promise of a new bilateral relationship, but that this openness is contingent upon Havana accepting real political and economic reforms. However, he accused the regime's elites of rejecting any significant change to preserve their total control over the population.
"Unfortunately, the regime and its corrupt elites continue to reject any effort for meaningful reform, prioritizing the perpetuation of their total control over the Cuban people and their dogmatic adherence to their failed and morally bankrupt Marxist ideology," Rubio stated in the statement.
The secretary also denounced that Cuba hosts military, intelligence, terrorist, and subversive operations from hostile powers less than 100 miles from U.S. territory, which he described as a direct threat to national security. "The leaders of Cuba must simply commit to real reforms, peace, and prosperity before it is too late," he warned.
The fifth anniversary of 11J arrives at a time of unprecedented crisis. According to data from Prisoners Defenders as of July 9, 2026, there are 1,306 political prisoners in Cuba, a new historical record that includes 40 minors. Of this total, 338 are serving sentences directly linked to the protests of 2021.
The pardon granted by the regime in April 2026, which freed 2,010 prisoners, explicitly excluded those convicted of "crimes against authority," the legal category used to criminalize the protesters from July 11.
The protests in July 2021 were the largest in Cuba since 1959: thousands of people took to the streets in over seventy locations demanding freedom and the end of the regime.
The response from the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel was to order repression with the phrase "The combat order has been given, revolutionaries to the streets."
In that context, Rubio had rejected Díaz-Canel's package of 176 economic measures for being insufficient without fundamental political changes, and announced new sanctions against GAESA entities.
In his message this Saturday, Rubio reiterated the joint stance of the Trump administration: "President Trump and I want a better future for Cuba, where Cubans have greater opportunity, freedom, and dignity, and where Cuba no longer hosts military, intelligence, terrorist, and subversive operations hostile to 90 miles from U.S. territory."
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