Cuban regime accuses U.S. of promoting 15N march

Cuba’s Communist Party Secretary of Ideology Rogelio Polanco accused the government of the United States on October 26 of promoting and organizing the Civic March for Change planned for November 15 (15N).

Polanco’s statements were broadcasted on the state-run television program Mesa Redonda and shared by media outlet Cubadebate.

Members of Joe Biden’s administration “openly participate” in promoting the public demonstration, said Polanco, who is also a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC). “Media outlets and politicians from the U.S. recurrently and permanently urge military interventions in our country,” he added.

“The public statements of the promoters and their ties with subversive organizations or agencies financed by the U.S. government intend to promote a change in Cuba’s political system, they claim the 15N march to be a move similar to the strategy the U.S. has used in other countries to change a regime,” Polanco continued.

“The provocation devised with N15 is doomed to failure. It was never authentic. Its attempt to cover itself up with some legality is perverse manipulation. The Constitution of the Republic is a genuine creation of the people. There is not scheme that can hide this,” tweeted the CPC official.

Polanco also highlighted the plan out include children in the march, a decision criticized in social networks and the island’s citizens.

“On 15N #Cuba will open its doors to the world and schools to our children. The explosion of joy and happiness, of hugs that have been contained by the hard months of the pandemic, is the one that the promoters of hatred intend to prevent. But they will not be able to stop it,” Polanco wrote in a Tweet.

On October 20, Havana’s Governor Reinaldo García Zapata announced that Cuban authorities are organizing activities for the capital’s children on November 15.

The project for November 15, called “Street Plans in Neighborhoods”, aims to hold sports, games, and other activities for children and adolescents in public spaces.

This Project and other measures are part of Havana’s 502^nd anniversary celebration, said García Zapata at a press conference.

On October 21, the Cuban Prosecutor's Office threatened to prosecute the organizers of the 15N march, a protest group called Archipiélago, for “instigating delinquency” and other crimes.  

The Prosecutor's Office claims to have the power to issue the threat, citing Article 156 of the Constitution which gives it the right to ensure Cuban citizens respect the law.  

“Taking into account the intention that was publicly expressed the organizer, the Prosecutor's Office… warned its citizens that failure to comply with the decision of the aforementioned authorities, they will incur in the crimes of disobedience, illegal demonstrations, instigation to commit a crime, or other foreseen and sanctioned activities found in the current criminal legislation,” stated a publication made by the Attorney General’s Office.

After the regime named November 20 as “National Defense day” and mobilize paramilitary troops starting November 18, Archipiélago’s members decided to stage the march of November 15.