The streets in the city of Santiago de Cuba were filled with police, military, and special forces on Wednesday in an apparent attempt to deter another massive protest in Cuba’s second-largest city. Fearing it can’t survive another mass protest, the communist Castro regime pulled out all the stops, deploying soldiers and special forces to intimidate citizens into submission. This is socialism in action.
Via CiberCuba (my translation):
Huge police deployment in Santiago de Cuba over fear of mass protests
A major police deployment due to fears of popular protests was carried out this Wednesday in Santiago de Cuba, according to reports from social media users who shared images of the presence of vehicles and agents of repression on the streets of the city.
“Military convoy takes the streets of Santiago de Cuba due to fears of protests over popular discontent,” reported independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on social media, based on his own and anonymous sources.
Images shared in his post showed trucks, patrol cars, and a large number of agents from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and special troops from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), known as “black berets.”
“Many followers report to me that several military convoys, with police, ‘black berets,’ and paddy wagons, are stationed in various peripheral neighborhoods of the city of Santiago de Cuba and on the central Morro Road, the epicenter of the popular protest on March 17 (17M),” the journalist reported.
He also specified that the shared images corresponded to the deployment of repressive forces on the Morro Road “in front of the Eduardo Chibás monument and near the headquarters of the Communist Party of District #3, Antonio Maceo.”
The photographs, taken from a considerable distance and at night, show a deserted street in the city filled with vehicles of the repressive forces.
Mayeta Labrada indicated that other convoys were stationed “near Martí Avenue and in the Altamira neighborhood, home to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), an opposition organization led by political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, José Daniel García Ferrer.”
“The pressure cooker is about to explode!” concluded the independent journalist, asking his followers to send graphic testimonies and reports on the large police deployment in Santiago de Cuba.
The worsening energy crisis in Cuba, which affects the population in the form of frequent and prolonged blackouts, is once again straining the Cuban social landscape, with increasingly evident expressions of discontent among citizens.
The regime knows this and even anticipated it, as the MININT made clear on its social media in mid-April. According to the regime’s primary institution for repression, the blame for this possible scenario lies with the U.S. government and its politicians who incite public disorder.
“The United States is launching new attempts to ‘heat up’ the streets during the summer, taking advantage of the complex situation the country is experiencing, according to the most recent interests of its intelligence agencies to generate attacks against Cuba, in what they call Operation 11.7.24,” said MININT on the social network X.
Determined to disregard the legitimacy of Cuban protests, closed to any dialogue with civil society, unwilling to recognize and enforce human rights in Cuba, especially freedom of the press, expression, and association, and betting its stay in power on strategies of confrontation, entrenchment, and repression, the Cuban regime is solely responsible for the possible uprisings that may occur in the country, similar to those of July 11 (11J) and March 17 (17M).
On that last occasion, the spark that ignited in Santiago de Cuba spread to other localities, such as Bayamo and Cárdenas. Although the protesters demonstrated spontaneously and peacefully, the regime intervened in internet communications and unleashed repression.
And, of course, for this sort of thing there are always resources–vehicles, gas, manpower, the works.