Much of Havana goes dark, protests erupt in capital and other towns affected by blackouts

From our Bureau of Restless Natives with some assistance from our new Electricity Will Kill You Bureau

Momentum is building. No doubt about it. Castro, Inc. is likely to squelch these protests, but — ironically — the very same blackouts that are creating the protests also makes it very difficult for the protesters to be identified.

An unannounced blackout hit Havana hard yesterday. It lasted for more than 24 hours through all of thursday and early friday morning. .

In the town of Nuevitas in Camaguey province, Cubans thronged the streets banging pots and pans and shouting “freedom” and anti-government slogans peppered with “malas palabras” (foul language).

So, once again, the lack of electricity is firing up discontent, making Cubans more fearless. Castro, Inc. can’t fix its electrical grid or obtain the fuel to run it, so this is a problem that will keep getting worse. The end result might be that electricity –or the lack of it — might actually kill Castro, Inc.

Via CiberCuba

To the rhythm of the conga “Turn on the current pinga”, and cries of “Freedom”, the Cubans staged a peaceful demonstration on Thursday night in the Pastelillo district of the Nuevitas municipality, in Camagüey.

The popular protests are to demand that the government resolve the problems of the energy crisis, inflation and also to release the political prisoners and make way for the change towards democracy in Cuba.

Cubans took to the streets shouting “Libertad”; “Díaz-Canel Singao the town is ‘plantao’ (defiant)”; “Down with Diaz-Canel”; “Free the political prisoners”; and in the middle of the demonstration they sang the national anthem, loudly.

Protests were reported simultaneously in Nuevitas, Camagüey province, and in Havana, in the Luyanó area, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, where the residents banged saucepans for a long time against the government.

The demonstrations took place at night, at a time when the streets are very dark due to blackouts. Cubans are taking advantage of the unpleasant power outages to go out and demonstrate and show their disagreement with the regime.

The darkness protects their identities and makes it difficult for the State to act with repressive measures against the demonstrators, as happened in the historic 11J protests that took place during daytime hours and the faces of the participants were recorded on the videos.

Continue reading HERE in Spanish (also see video of protest)