HAVANA, March 18 (Reuters) – Cuba’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the top U.S. diplomat on the island to a meeting following protests on Sunday, accusing the U.S. embassy in Havana of seeking to stoke a broader anti-government uprising and meddling in Cuba’s internal affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rallies<\/u><\/a> in protest of oppressive, hours-long blackouts and food shortages erupted in at least five locations across the island on Sunday, including Cuba’s second largest city Santiago, state-run media said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. government said on X late on Sunday that it was monitoring the protests and encouraged the Cuban government to “respect the human rights of the protesters and address the legitimate needs of the Cuban people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those comments prompted Cuba’s foreign ministry to call charge d’affaires Benjamin Ziff to a meeting with deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, “who formally conveyed his firm rejection of the government’s interventionist behavior and slanderous messages,” a statement from the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A U.S. State Department spokesman said it was “absurd” to suggest Washington was behind the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest tiff between the two long-time foes underscores the still frosty relationship between Cuba and the United States, which has barely improved since Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cuba’s foreign ministry on Monday repeated the communist-run government’s long-standing accusation that a Cold War-era U.S. embargo and other sanctions were seeking to impoverish Cubans and destabilize the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n