Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Cuba this Friday for the second consecutive day to protest the lack of electricity.
The Cuban government made this Friday an unusual request for help from the White House due to the emergency that the island is experiencing following the passage of Hurricane Ian.
The Cubans gathered in the early hours of the night in the district of Playa, in Havana, and shortly followingwards police officers arrived and surrounded the demonstrators, the EFE news agency reported.
There were more protests in other neighborhoods of the Cuban capital and in cities such as Holguín and Matanzas, as might be seen on social networks.
At the same time there was a blocking almost total internet traffic from Cubaalso for the second consecutive night, alerted several specialized platforms.
Shouting “we want light,” hundreds of Cubans had already gone out to protest on Thursday in various neighborhoods of Havana, days following the entire island was left without electricity following Hurricane Ian.
Protesters spontaneously took to the streets in at least five parts of the city, the AP news agency reported.
Those present, many of them in low-income neighborhoods of the capital, also they shouted “freedom” and banged saucepans with spoons in protest, as several videos that were widely shared on social media showed.
the internet cut
As the protests grew Thursday, there was a cut widespread mobile internet service which was corroborated by affected and global traffic tracking platforms on the network.
Activists accused the government of having suspended the connection to prevent people from accessing information regarding the protests and deciding to join.
In the middle of the blackout, many went out to the portal with their saucepans to support the protests.
In previous protests, the authorities also suspended internet service for hours, and even days in the case of the historic demonstrations on July 11, 2021.
In videos shared by users of social networks, the deployment and patrolling of vpolice and military vehicles in the streets immediately following the spontaneous demonstrations broke out.
Other images showed verbal confrontations between groups of neighbors and authorities who went to the neighborhoods to report on the situation of the electricity supply.
These people in Havana went to a local branch of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) to ask for explanations.
A blackout never seen before
The entire island was left without electricity. for several hours on Tuesday, something that had never happened before.
The government attributed the total blackout to Hurricane Ianwhich crossed the western region of the country with intense rains and winds of up to 200 km/h, causing two deaths and serious material damage.
In the following days, some of the power plants distributed throughout the island began to work once more and the supply was gradually restored in some areas.
However, most of the 11.1 million Cubans still do not have electricity or only receive power for a few hours a day, reported the EFE agency.
The Presidency of Cuba reported this Friday that in Havana the service had already been restored in 60% of homes.
Crisis total
The Cuban electrical system faces two fundamental problems: the lack of fuel and the increasingly frequent breakdowns.
Most Cuban power plants run on oil, which is scarce in the country.
On the other hand, the deterioration of power plants is increasingly difficult to reverse due to the lack of resources to repair faults and purchase new parts.
The peculiar way of protesting of a Cuban: he brought the food that had been spoiled in the refrigerator due to the power outages.
The blackouts are one more inconvenience suffered by Cubans at a time of extreme economic crisis in the country.
Another one of them is the shortage, since in Cuba all kinds of goods are scarce, from food to cleaning products, clothing, furniture, appliances and fuel.
In addition, the government controls the limited supply available and sells most products in dollarsa currency that is not within the reach of part of the population.
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