U.N. rights boss calls on Cuba to release protesters

The U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Cuba on Friday to release protesters and several journalists arrested at demonstrations and denounced alleged excessive use of force against some of them. "It is particularly worrying that these include individuals allegedly held incommunicado and people whose whereabouts are unknown.

The U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Cuba on Friday to release protesters and several journalists arrested at demonstrations and denounced the alleged excessive use of force against some of them.

"It is particularly worrying that these include individuals allegedly held incommunicado and people whose whereabouts are unknown. All those detained for exercising their rights must be promptly released," she said in a statement calling for dialogue to address grievances and for the Internet to be fully restored. Thousands of Cubans joined a wave of nationwide protests over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties, and the government's handling of a surge in COVID-19 infections on Sunday, in the most significant unrest in decades in the Communist-run country.