The electric service was reconnected hours after neighbors demanded answers from local officials.
MADRID, Spain.- After almost a month living between blackouts, water shortages and the absence of a state response, the inhabitants of Seboruco, in the Mayarí municipality (Holguín), decided to take to the streets to demand solutions. The community, affected since the passage of Hurricane Melissa On October 28, 2025, he reported that he had to survive 23 days without basic services or government attention.
The protest, registered in images published by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada On his Facebook profile, he brought together dozens of neighbors who denounced to government representatives the institutional abandonment that, they claim, they have suffered since the impact of the cyclone.
“We have been without electricity for 23 days, without drinking water, drinking water from a contaminated dam and carrying water from the rivers. They turned on the current a few meters from here and nothing. Nobody has come to see anything, or to worry about the situation,” the residents expressed in one of the recordings released by Tan.
In the community, they say, there live sick children and elderly people who do not have food or basic conditions to survive. “We are tired of complaining, of calling, and no one does anything. We no longer know what to do or who to turn to,” the residents denounced.
The testimonies agree that local authorities have carried out formal visits and meetings, but without offering concrete solutions. Furthermore, according to the neighbors, several leaders demanded that they not be recorded with mobile phones. in unot from the videos shared by Tanan official identified as Franklin – in charge of citizen services – threatens a resident stating: “You can’t record me because that is against the law.”
As reported Cuban Diarythe protest intensified during the afternoon, when a group of women—accompanied by some men—began banging cauldrons and ringing the warehouse bell, traditionally used to notify the arrival of regulated products. The action attracted more neighbors, until there were about 20 people, according to reporter Osniel Ramírez.
Ramírez explained that the unrest was exacerbated after a publication by pro-government journalist Emilio Rodríguez, who assured that Seboruco had already recovered electricity. Although the information was partially true—a small segment of five or six homes had been reconnected days before—the majority of the town was still without power or water, which heightened indignation.
Ramírez confirmed that after an exchange with the delegate, the neighbors decided to summon more people from the winery itself and that shortly after, the leaders of the cyclone command post went to the scene in a jeep and began to offer explanations.
According to the information collected by Cuban Diaryauthorities resumed electrical service around five in the afternoon, after sustained pressure from protesters. “People were energetic, but without going over the line so as not to provoke a different type of reaction,” Ramírez told the outlet.
Despite the partial restoration of electricity, residents say they still face serious water supply problems because the community is located in an elevated area, where the supply depends directly on electricity.
Complaints continue to circulate on social networks while the inhabitants of Seboruco demand that, after weeks of abandonment, a stable and lasting response to their basic needs be guaranteed.
