The Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) called on Cubans to continue to pressure Cuban communist authorities to open general elections after thousands of people took the streets of major local cities to protest the unprecedented scarcity of essentials and the death rate produced by COVID-19.

After months of food and medicine shortages and the collapse of hospitals due to the pandemic, thousands of Cubans took to the streets shouting “Down with the dictatorship!”, “Homeland and life!”, “We want vaccines!”, and “we are not afraid!”, in the largest demonstrations that ever occurred in more than 60 years of Communist rule.

Protesters in some regions marched with the image of Our Lady of Charity, the national Marian advocate of Cuba.

The MCL was founded by Catholic dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in 1988 to achieve a peaceful democratic reform in Cuba, explicitly inspired by the social doctrine of the Church.