Raul Castro reappears in emergency meeting prompted by Cuba protests

Raul Castro, the octogenarian leader who is still the ultimate authority in Cuba, came out of retirement to attend an emergency meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo to deal with the islandwide protests that have shaken the six-decade-old regime.

The meeting, reported by the official Communist Party daily Granma, took place on Sunday, the day a massive popular uprising against the government erupted in several Cuban cities, including Havana. It is unclear why Granma waited till Monday to publish the information.

The paper repeated accusations by Cuba's handpicked president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, that the US was behind the protests. U.S. officials have dismissed those claims.

"During the meeting, provocations orchestrated by counterrevolutionary elements, organized and financed from the United States with destabilizing purposes, were analyzed," Granma said.

The daily paper praised "the exemplary response of the people to the call of comrade Díaz-Canel to defend the Revolution in the streets, which allowed the defeat of the subversive actions."

Castro's presence in the meeting is a sign of how seriously the regime takes the protests, and may also be an indication that there aredoubts that Díaz-Canel, whom Castro selected to succeed him at the top of the party and as president, can handle the crisis alone.

After the protests started in San Antonio de los Baños near Havana, Díaz-Canel visited the town in the hopes of calming the situation, in a gesture mimicking what the late Fidel Castro did when demonstrators took to the Malecon in 1994. But by Sunday afternoon, the protests had spread throughout the country. Díaz-Canel then appeared on television, seemingly agitated, and called on felllow communists to confront the demonstrators by any means necessary. Facing criticism, he tried to walk back his comments in a televised address on Monday, saying he didn't call for violence but said the demonstrators "got what they deserve."

He has been the target of the ire of demonstrators who have chanted his name along with a common Cuban expletive.

Despite Granma's claims about the unrest being under control, several videos circulating on Monday evening show further confrontations with the police in at least two neighborhoods in Havana.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a statement urging Cubans not to take to the sea. It also warned that taking a vessel to the island without authorization is illegal, after reports of people in Miami gathering provisions in the hopes of going to Cuba.

"The Coast Guard and our federal partners maintain persistent and vigilant airborne and surface patrols in the Caribbean, including the Florida straits to ensure safety of life at sea for all mariners," the statement said. "Please don't take to the sea."