Cubans staged a protest this Friday (30), banging pots and screaming in Havana neighborhoods that remained without electricity three days after Hurricane Ian struck.
On Tuesday night (27), the island’s electricity grid, which is already experiencing a chronic crisis with periodic cuts, collapsed, leaving the country without power.
Strong winds and flooding also affected cities, with reports of trees felled and houses destroyed. The hurricane made its way to the United States, where it wreaked havoc in the states of North Carolina and Florida.
After the repairs began, the government claims to have rehabilitated half of the capital’s power grid. Luis Antonio Torres, secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party in Havana, told state TV that about 60% of the city’s residents already had the network reconnected.
“Protesting is a right, but only when those responsible are not doing their job. Yesterday’s protests only delayed recovery,” Torres said.
But on Friday, dozens of people were still banging pots in areas where power had not yet returned, such as the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana.
“Enough of this situation. All my food has rotted because we don’t have electricity,” Jorge Luis Cruz, a resident of the region, told Reuters.
He also stated that his family did not want him to demonstrate in the streets, for fear that he might be arrested.
Public protests in Cuba are rare. In July 2021, large-scale anti-government demonstrations shook the island, with the arrest of more than 1,400 people – many have not yet been tried and others sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
In December, the country begins to adopt a new Penal Code, with tough measures against freedom of expression and expression.
Among them are punishing with eight years in prison those who broadcast critical journalistic content through social networks, banning foreign funding to NGOs and expanding cases in which actions against the regime can be classified as “terrorism”.
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