Thousands of Cubans have taken to the street recently to protest food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis - one of the island's biggest anti-government demonstrations in recent memory.

News 12’s Mark Sudol spoke with Mike Evans on Tuesday, who speaks to his friends on the island three times a day. He promotes the game of basketball around the world through his company Full Court Peace and has been to Cuba multiple times.

Evans says Cuba has never been a place with ample supplies for the 11 million people who live there.

"It’s a big island with a lot of people – and you add COVID to that, you add the cutting off of their No. 1 industry, which is tourism,” he said. “You've got a lack of revenue, tax revenue and travel revenue at a place that already is low on supplies."

Evans says he's not sure how these issues will change anytime soon.

The scene of demonstrators on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere on the island was an unusual scene as the communist leadership has historically shown little tolerance for criticism. Police initially trailed behind as protesters chanted “Freedom,” “Enough” and “Unite.”

AP Wire Services were used in this report.