Cuban FM tells AP that fizzled protest effort was US failure

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s top diplomat says the fizzled attempt by young activists to encourage anti-government protests this week was a failure in political communication by the organizers, who he accuses of being supported by U.S. interests. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez made the comments in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, two days after no Cubans turned out for demonstrations and a few hours after it was revealed that one of the main organizers had gone to Spain. Rodríguez says the young activists behind the protest campaign are not representative of most Cubans. He says that is why their effort to encourages protest on Monday “was an absolute failure.”