HAVANA, CUBA – Small protests broke out on Thursday and Friday across several communities in Cuba, as desperate residents took to the streets demanding that the government restore power and provide aid to affected areas. devastated by Hurricane Ian, which swept across the island nation this week, making the situation worse than already bleak living conditions.
Protests on Thursday broke out in the capital Havana, in the town of surgery, the capital Batabaño and the city of Cárdenas, and state security forces were deployed to quell the unrest. The government appears to have cut off internet and telecommunications networks across the country, possibly to prevent news of the protests from spreading and to inspire others to join.
While it’s not clear how many Cubans took to the streets – some footage shows around 100 protesters at one rally – the fact that protests have occurred is remarkable. The Cuban government arrested more than 1,000 protesters last year after Protests broke out across the country about shortages of food, electricity and medical services.
Organized by government Mass testing has been going on for monthsprosecuted a 16-year-old minor for participating in the protests.
Whether the protests will continue into the weekend, but analysts note that Cubans appear to be venting their fear of confronting the government, which has no tolerance for those different opinions. While Thursday’s protests occurred in several communities around the country, on Friday night, small protests broke out in several Havana neighborhoods, and appeared to have been contained. regime in the capital.
On Thursday, several dozen protesters in several Havana neighborhoods blocked street traffic and smashed pots and pans – a common form of protest – chanting “we want light”. Many people expressed anger that the lack of electricity this week had ruined the meager food they had in the fridge.
“We closed the streets to the trash cans, and we stayed like that for three hours,” said Dairon, a Havana resident who has been a resident of Havana. protested Thursday and asked to keep his last name out of concern for his safety. “We can’t take it anymore, our food is rotting.”
Other residents took to the streets with their dry molded grocery bags to show off their plight. One protester said the small crowd was dispersed a few hours after the arrival of security forces, prompting residents to flee for fear of being detained.
“After the protests last July, the question is: is this an anomaly or a new phase, and now it seems to be a new phase and it will be difficult to bring the genie back. peace,” said Ted Henken, a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, and the author of several books on Cuba.
“By suppressing or with some small fig leaves, it seems the government has stopped the protests,” he added. “But now, a year later, people are out again because the government has not been able to address the root causes of the protests. Frustration has spilled over into the general population because of the scarcity of food, electricity, basic things. That was only made worse by this terrible hurricane.”
Protests that took place in July 2021 saw thousands of protesters flock to cities and towns across Cuba, the largest anti-government demonstration the country has ever seen since since 1994.
Cubans have long complained of food shortages and are forced to stand in line for hours for rations of milk, grain or – even more rarely – government meat, a situation that has become increasingly common. bad by the pandemic. The meager food they receive is often not enough for their households, and many complain of going hungry.
