Cubans living in Central Havana took to the streets in protest early Friday morning to express their frustration and discontent over another extended blackout. Protests in communist Cuba have become commonplace due to food and medicine shortages caused by the corruption and incompetence of the Castro dictatorship and the regime’s inability to provide even the most basic of services, such as electricity and water.
Via CiberCuba (my translation):
Outraged Cubans blocked Monte Street in Central Havana early Friday morning in protest against the endless blackouts affecting the country’s capital.
The protest took place at the corner of Monte and Anton Recio in Central Havana, after a transformer exploded that had already been reported by residents on several occasions.
“The transformer blew up, it’s been blowing up for several days, people are fed up,” said a young woman who recorded the protest.
The demonstrators, rejecting the authorities’ neglect in resolving the problem, turned over garbage containers in the middle of the street.
“Havana is not the countryside,” the woman said, reaffirming the old belief that “blackouts in Havana should be short because people take to the streets.”
The energy crisis on the island has reached historic levels, and even in the capital, power cuts last up to six hours.
After 65 years of socialism producing the worst economic and social crisis in Cuba’s in modern history, the Cuban are no longer willing to cower in fear of the totalitarian communist regime and remain quiet. They are taking to the streets and making their voices heard.
At the rate the crisis is worsening in Cuba, the stage is being set up for another mass protest that may dwarf the island-wide protests that rocked the communist dictatorship in July 2021.