President Joe Biden voiced American support for the Cuban people protesting around the island nation about food and medicine shortages as the coronavirus spikes throughout the country, USA Today reports.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Havana and other cities voicing frustration with the leadership of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel as hospitals fill up with coronavirus patients as the virus peaks three months after the country opened up to international tourism.  People are also frustrated at the shortage of available food and medicine through retail outlets.

“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights,” Biden said in the statement. “Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected.”

The protestors, primarily young people, took to the streets in Havana, San Antonio de los Baños and Palma Soriano, chanting “Liberty,” “We want freedom” and “We want vaccines.”  Cuban-Americans in Miami also demonstrated in support of the Cuban people.

“As if pandemic outbreaks had not existed all over the world, the Cuban-American mafia, paying very well on social networks to influencers and YouTubers, has created a whole campaign … and has called for demonstrations across the country,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel told reporters.