Biden: Cuba ‘a failed state’ and is ‘repressing their citizens’ | Al Jazeera

United States President Joe Biden, facing twin crises close to his country’s borders, on Thursday declared Cuba “a failed state” and said sending US forces into Haiti is not on his agenda at the moment.

Protesters have been demonstrating in Cuba since Sunday as anger has grown about shortages of basic goods, electricity and internet outages, curbs on civil liberties and the government’s handling of a surge in COVID-19 infections. The hardships are exacerbated by a decades-old US trade embargo that is being reviewed by Biden’s administration.

“Cuba is, unfortunately, a failed state and repressing their citizens,” Biden said Thursday at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.

Amid calls from Republicans and Biden’s fellow Democrats to restore internet services to Cuba, Biden said his administration is looking into it.

“They’ve cut off access to the internet. We’re considering whether we have the technological ability to reinstate that access,” Biden said.