South Florida joined in solidarity Monday in response to renewed nationwide protests in defiance of the Cuban government.
The protest follows demonstrations in July where thousands of Cubans took to the streets calling for change and demanding an end to food and medicine shortages.
On Sunday, the Assembly of Cuban Resistance, which brings together more than 35 associations that fight for democracy on the island, encouraged exiles in Miami, especially Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, to join the protests.
"Now the Cuban government knows the intention of the Cuban people," Cuban activist Rosa Maria Paya said.
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"On July 11th, the Cuban people surprised the dictatorship. Now they are ready and have already implemented a massive wave of repression," she said.
The Cuban government said it would not allow the Monday protests to take place.
Paya also said that members of a delegation of the European Parliament and exile Cubans asked for permission to fly to Havana on Monday, but that the Cuban government has not granted permission.
"In a humanitarian mission of observation,” Paya said. “We need those impartial watchers taking note of everything that happens in Cuba and also in a way protecting the Cuban people."
"They asked for permission, Cuban government denied because they say even when it is in the constitution that you can speak up and protest pacifically, they even that they denied the permission to protest," Cuban-American Maica Gonzalez said.
On Sunday, U.S. Congressman Carlos Gimenez tweeted a video in support of the Cuban protests, saying in Spanish that "Today more than ever, the Cuban people want freedom."
Gimenez along with South Florida Republican congressmembers Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart and New York congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to "send a clear message to the illegitimate Cuban regime."
South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz went on MSNBC to talk about the bipartisan resolution she led in Congress back in July when the original protests started.
At another event Sunday in Coconut Grove, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava tweeted her support for the protests and let the Cuban people know that "Miami-Dade stand with them now and always."
Demonstrations in support of the Cuban protests were also held in Washington, D.C. and other cities across the country Sunday.
