United States  President Joe Biden on Thursday said Cuba that is witnessing a mass anti-government protest is a “failed state” and communism is a “failed system.’ He made the statements during a press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Cuba is, unfortunately, a failed state and repressing their citizens. There are a number of things that we would consider doing to help the people of Cuba, but it would require a different circumstance or a guarantee that they would not be taken advantage of by the government. For example, the ability to send remittances back to Cuba. We would not do that now because the fact is it’s highly likely the regime would confiscate those remittances or big chunks of it,” said Biden

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Biden also added that the US is looking into ways to possibly reinstate access to the internet in Cuba but at the same time he indicated that the country is not going to consider re-establishing the US to Cuba remittances. Remittance is a practice of transferring money by Americans to their Cubans relatives.

The US explained that the move is taken due to the concerns that the regime will confiscate those funds.

When asked about Communism, Biden said “communism is a failed system — a universally failed system. And I don’t see socialism as a very useful substitute. But that’s another story.”

This comes after Cuban President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel has blamed the demonstration on the US government. He said that the “sincere protesters” have been “manipulated” by the US-orchestrated social media campaigns and “mercenaries” on the ground.  

Currently, thousands of protestors are out on the streets in the small island nation of Cuba to protest against the current communist government. These demonstrations are believed to be one of the biggest uprisings the nation has seen in over three decades.  

  The protests are an outcome of citizens’ long-accumulated anger against Cuba’s collapsing economy and the sheer mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  As per a Reuters report, the anti-government protests have been fuelled due to the economic distress the citizens have been facing. Cuba is in the middle of the country’s worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, which was its old ally.