For a while, Maritza González's two young children didn't know what it was like to sleep until dawn. At her home in Moron, Cuba's Ciego de Ávila province, Maritza brushes away mosquitoes and fans with cardboard to ward them off, but her two young children have trouble closing their eyes. “They can't sleep because the lights go out every three to four hours,” she said. And without electricity, you can't even turn on a fan or air conditioner. “We have to blow air into cardboard boxes, and humans get tired doing this all day long.'' The Cuban Electric Union has reported continuous power outages on the island for weeks. This, along with the country's food crisis, sparked mass protests on Sunday, March 17th. Demonstrations are once again putting President Miguel Diaz-Canel's government at risk. .
The street mobilization began around 2 p.m. near the Cuban city of Santiago and by Sunday night had spread to other Cuban provinces, including Matanzas and Artemisa. Their first demand was “electricity and food,” but the protesters then chanted “freedom” and booed the current president. The government shut down the internet to prevent the incident from being reported and spreading to other parts of the country, but several people shared footage of hundreds of people shouting “Patria, Vida” in unison. Successful. [Homeland and life]' has become the slogan of the protests.
Although other demonstrations of discontent have been reported on the island, this is the largest since the mass protests of July 11 and 12, 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets for the same reasons. be.
Despite government punishment for past protests, some receiving sentences of up to 20 years in prison, economic conditions have brought Cubans back to the streets. The long power outages, lasting up to 18 hours, are reminiscent of those experienced during the so-called “special period” in the 1990s, when aid from the former Soviet Union ceased. In addition to repeated failures at the country's main power plant, the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant, fuel shipments from allies such as Russia and Venezuela are also being affected.
A woman in Santiago, Cuba, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the power continues to be out and reports that her grocery store has not received any food for a month. She says the city has returned to normal, despite the fact that a week ago a popular uprising broke out very close to her home. To quell the protests, the government sent products such as rice and sugar to some very local grocery stores. Police and military were also brought in to quell the demonstrations.
Power outages that last more than 10 hours a day in many states have been a challenge for many Cubans and contributed to protests. Yander Zamora (EFE)
Díaz-Canel accuses US of 'heating up Cuba's streets'
The first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, was sent to quell the popular uprising and announced immediate shipments of food to certain warehouses in the city. “I can't deny that it was a very tense situation,” she later said in her official press release. “But, as always, people were understanding.”
At the same time as the protests were taking place, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel took to I will respond.”
However, the president, Cuba's foreign ministry, and state media outlets have all used language that blames the protests on the alleged US intervention. Diaz-Canel accused “mediocre politicians and terrorists” in South Florida of “heating up the streets of Cuba,” a charge that was quickly denied by Vedant Patel, the State Department's principal deputy press secretary. “The United States has no involvement in these protests in Cuba. The accusations are ridiculous,” he said in his official statement. “Yesterday, protests took place in several cities in Cuba, demanding electricity, food and basic freedoms. I think what we are seeing reflects the dire situation on the island. ” he added.
Uncertain number of detainees
The July 11 and 12 protests were the country's first large-scale demonstrations since the revolution took power, but the cause remains the same. In other words, the overall unstable situation in this country.
Camila Rodriguez, coordinator of Justicia 11J, a group monitoring the status of thousands of political prisoners from previous protests, said dozens of people were arrested during Sunday's demonstrations but their identities could not be confirmed. He pointed out that only five people had done so. Of the people, two were at the demonstration in Bayamo, two in El Cobre, and one in Matanzas. So far, at least three of the detainees have been released. The two had to pay a fine for allegedly “disturbing public order” before being released.
But Cubarex's lawyer, Laudiel Peña, said it was “very likely that the government would resort again to the same tactics it used after July 11,” including charging some of those detained with sedition. I think it's expensive. “Due to the way the Cuban state criminalizes protests, we cannot rule out the possibility of something like this happening,” he explains.
Similar to the demonstrations in July 2021, the government resorted to constantly shutting down the internet and deploying police and military. This protest was not as violent as previous ones, although several videos showed police cracking down on demonstrators. “Although there is evidence of demonstrators being beaten, police intervention, and militarization, these protests are not as large nationwide as the July 11 protests. We also need to understand that it is not a thing,” Peña said.
Cubans have long found it difficult to go out and claim public space because the government has traditionally cracked down on protesters on the island. According to research by the independent project CubaData, one out of every two Cubans intends to participate in civil protests, but very few end up taking part in demonstrations. The situation in Cuba has been deteriorating for the past five years (at least), and with no short-term solution in sight, domestic dissatisfaction is only increasing.
For Cubans, 2023 was marked by food shortages and shortages of medicine and fuel, which affected transportation and caused numerous power outages throughout the year. The economy contracted by 2% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and a decline in the tourism sector. This situation was further exacerbated by the US embargo on the island, inefficient government management, and several misguided policy measures.
Since then, a series of government decisions have followed, including one that not only implemented a series of economic measures that raised the cost of living for Cuban families, but also suggested that Cuba's leadership was not in good shape. There were things to do. These measures had to be discontinued at the beginning of 2024. Moreover, without anyone suspecting it, he quickly announced the dismissal of then-Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández, who was later found to be under investigation on corruption charges.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levi has acknowledged the country's fuel shortages and said on numerous occasions that the government will provide solutions. Although Cuba continues to be inconvenienced by power shortages, the minister said, “The fuel situation will improve in the future.'' However, Cuban economist Omar Eveleny Pérez Villanueva, former director of the Center for Cuban Economic Research at the University of Havana, told EL PAÍS that he believes 2024 will be an even worse year than the previous year.
“January, February and March were really bad. For the last few months, we've had not only a lack of electricity, but also a lack of water and food. This country is really in a very difficult situation.” Evereny argues that the current power outages on the island are not only exacerbated by food shortages, but also by non-adherence to the delivery cycles of the country's grocery stores. “There are some states, such as the eastern states, where the goods haven't arrived for a month. I don't think there is a short-term solution. We don't have the money to pay for the ships and we need to generate the money to own them. We don't have fuel. I don't think there will be enough imports to make up for this shortage in the short term.”
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