Press agencies have been reporting groups of people banging pots in various neighborhoods of Havana, when the country entered its third day of blackouts after the passage of Hurricane Ian.
The storm caused the collapse of the national power grid earlier this week. It left an island of 11 million inhabitants without electricity, destroying houses and crops, especially in the province of Pinar del Río.
Three days after the passage of Ian, Cuba has not managed to completely recover from the total blackout it suffered on Tuesday, despite the efforts of the authorities and specialized personnel.
Concentrations and cacerolazos have been reported in different parts of Havana such as Guanabacoa, El Vedado, La Palma and Bacuranao. These protests continue those that took place in Camagüey, Batabanó and other capital neighborhoods such as Arroyo Naranjo and San Miguel del Padrón.
According to reports, in the Cerro you could hear dozens of people in the streets and banging pots from their terraces and roofs in the dark. “In Cerro, there has been no water or current for 72 hours. People took to the streets because the food that one buys with twenty sacrifices is spoiled,” a septuagenarian told the Efe news agency. High temperatures and mosquitoes had Cubans on edge.
Luis Antonio Torres Iribar, first secretary of the Party in Havana, assured that “protesting is a right.” “We had to face isolated situations where there were popular complaints about the situation of water, electricity, and the loss of food due to lack of electricity. We consider these claims to be fair”, he stated in statements to Cuban television.
Israel Rojas, a member of the Buena Fe Duo, has asked “from my condition as a citizen, strongly to our politicians and our press, to be very careful with public communication and go out to be with people. Explain with reasons and no unnecessary rhetoric. No triumphalism, please. No callousness, no crippling bureaucratism at any level. This is the time to put the chest to lift and help others. It is time for tolerance and understanding with the angry and the embrace of the saddened. There have been many consecutive blows ».
The Presidency of Cuba said Friday that in Havana the service has already been restored in 60% of homes.
Efe/Reuters/BBC/OnCuba
