Thousands
of Cubans have taken to the street recently to protest food shortages and high
prices amid the coronavirus crisis - one of the island's biggest anti-government
demonstrations in recent memory.
News
12’s Mark Sudol spoke with Mike Evans on Tuesday, who speaks to his friends on
the island three times a day. He promotes the game of basketball around the
world through his company Full Court Peace and has been to Cuba multiple times.
Evans
says Cuba has never been a place with ample supplies for the 11 million
people who live there.
"It’s
a big island with a lot of people – and you add COVID to that, you add the
cutting off of their No. 1 industry, which is tourism,” he said. “You've got a
lack of revenue, tax revenue and travel revenue at a place that already is low
on supplies."
Evans
says he's not sure how these issues will change anytime soon.
The
scene of demonstrators on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere on the
island was an unusual scene as the communist leadership has historically shown
little tolerance for criticism. Police initially trailed behind as protesters
chanted “Freedom,” “Enough” and “Unite.”
AP
Wire Services were used in this report.