Altamira and El Carmen, in Mar Verde, took to the streets this Sunday after more than two weeks without electricity and without a response from the authorities.
MADRID, Spain.- Several areas of Santiago de Cuba experienced a night of neighborhood protests this Sunday motivated by the prolonged lack of electrical service after the passage of Hurricane Melissa. The demonstrations were mainly concentrated in the Altamira neighborhood and the El Carmen neighborhood, in Mar Verde, where residents blocked roads and demanded the presence of the authorities.
In Altamira, residents of streets 7, 10 and 12 took to the streets after 18 days without electricity, even though the general circuit of the area had already been energized. The families reported that they continue to live among mosquitoes, cooking with charcoal and caring for the elderly, children and sick people in the midst of an epidemiological crisis. During the protest, residents prevented an Electric Company vehicle from leaving the area without offering a solution.
Independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada reported that, in the midst of the tension, a woman identified as the wife of the president of the Popular Council of Altamira appeared. The woman introduced herself to the neighbors as “in charge of the electrical service of the Popular Council.” According to the testimonies collected, his intervention increased the discomfort of the community, which insisted that it needed answers and not explanations.
During the protest, two patrol cars arrived, but the police presence did not disperse the protesters. The neighbors reiterated that they would not leave until they were reconnected, denouncing that they do not understand why their sector remains in darkness while other streets on the same circuit recovered service days ago.
After the demonstration, on 7 de Mármol Street, several sections that had been without power for almost 20 days were already energized. “When the people stand up, solutions appear,” said Mayeta when reporting about it.
The mobilizations were not limited to Altamira. In the El Carmen neighborhood, in Mar Verde, residents closed traffic for almost an hour to demand electricity, water and humanitarian assistance. The community had been without basic services and without institutional presence for several days.
No representative of the municipal government, the Popular Council or the Electric Company went to the site during the protest, which increased the feeling of abandonment.
This Sunday’s protests take place in a context of growing social unrest over the unsustainable blackouts in several provincesespecially in the east of the country, where the outages have extended for hours, days and even weeks after the hurricane.
