Miami police chief marches with protesters against Cuban government

The police chief told Fox News he supported regime change in Cuba

Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo hugs a protester after some had become agitated as music was being played in front of the Versailles restaurant on 14 July 2021 in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images)

The police chief of Miami marched with demonstrators in the city to protest the Cuban government, hugging and consoling activists hoping to see the regime change in the island nation.

Art Acevedo, the city's police chief, joined in with anti-Cuban government protesters, offering sympathy to a pair of crying men and other emotional demonstrators.

Many Cubans who fled the country after Fidel Castro ousted the regime of Fulgencio Batista settled in Miami. Many Miami-based Cubans have been critical Castro's revolutionary government.

Cubans are currently protesting rising prices in commodities as well as food and medicine scarcity as the island faces its worst surge in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. Protesters who support the government and police have mobilised to fight back against the uprising.

Mr Acevedo told broadcaster WSVN on Wednesday that police had to show empathy with protesters, regardless of the causes that bring them to the streets.

"Our community is hurting, and whether it's last summer's Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protest, if you're in law enforcement, especially a police leader, and you can't have empathy and you can't be with your community, you probably don't need to be here," Mr Acevedo said.

Black Lives Matter protesters in Miami will likely be surprised by the chief's comments, as many claimed during the 2020 George Floyd protests that the police force regularly used excessive force to break up their marches.

“When you're a police chief, you have to live in that city, and you have to be part of that community,” Mr Acevedo said. “This is our community. Last summer, it was Black Lives Matter, the George Floyd family. If you can't feel that pain in the African American community last summer and the Cuban community this year, then you need to go do something else.”

Mr Acevedo has expressed sympathy with Cubans in Miami who long for regime change in Cuba.

"We wake every morning as Cubans and say hey are those SOB's out of power yet? And they're not. People don't understand that we've got to keep the pressure on that government," he told Fox News.

Earlier this week, Miami's mayor, Francis Suarez, called on the US government to intervene in the protests in Cuba to displace the regime.

The US government, which has a long history of interfering in the democratic processes of Latin American and South American countries, often by training violent opposition forces to depose regimes, has denied any involvement in the ongoing protests in Cuba.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the protests in Cuba rose from internal strife and were not encouraged by the US government.

The city's police faced criticism when it allowed demonstrators protesting the Cuban government to shut down roadways, a tactic the department did not tolerate during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.