Havana/Melissa left Cuban territory for Mayarí after hours ravaging eastern Cuba, but the effects are still felt in the Holguín municipality, which has had three almost consecutive protests in small rural towns tired of living for almost a month in the dark. The last one occurred this Sunday in Guairajal, where more than twenty people They took to the streets with precarious signs written on cardboard demanding power after more than 25 days without service.
“Every day we speak with the delegate and the president of the Council [Popular] and no one pays attention to us,” said one of the neighbors. Another explained that the community suffers from severe abandonment, as a result of which it has been decimated. “There were 200 or so houses here and there are not 40 left,” he explained.
Women with babies in their arms and children with balloons in their hands shouted “we want current,” a protest that could have been avoided, another neighbor explained on social media. “We are tired of calling and complaining and they ignore us. It is a lack of respect towards this small, humble and submissive town. In addition to not having electricity service, we have infinite problems, for example, not having water and being almost cut off, with the river in the way and the bridge that connects us with Arroyo Enmedio that is broken. And no one cares about that either. We feel totally abandoned by the municipal authorities,” he lamented just one day before the protest.
“There were 200 or so houses here and there are not 40 left,” he explained.
Although the Government has vindicated the efforts of Union Electrical linemen who came from different provinces to eastern Cuba to collaborate in the repairs, the work has not been as exemplary as it appears, some users denounce.
“More than 20 days without power and yesterday the linemen were on the rise of Guayabo, where our transformer is located. They turned the power off and cut the cables that go to our neighborhood, on 21st Street in the background, leaving only 11 houses. They did not want to go in because it was raining, there was mud and they had to cross a bridge. So I ask: where are those arduous linemen who mention so much, leaving children, the elderly, the sick, working mothers without power for not doing Well, a job that the residents already did, because they fixed the fallen lines and stopped the fallen poles. It was just a lineman going in with a ladder and putting in the connections that we residents have to the houses. That is done in less than half an hour, but it was easier to cut the cables and leave us without power. They reported that all the lines were on the floor and they left.exclaimed a neighbor from Mayariwhich continued with a warning: “We are calling the command post and they hang up on me. So, what do women and children have to do? We will take to the streets if they don’t give us the power. We will do like in Seboruco.”
The reference was to the protest that took place on last Thursday in that communitywhere the neighbors took to the streets after 23 days without electricity or running water, an alarming situation in the midst of the arbovirus epidemic that affects the Island. “We called everywhere, the mothers went to the Party (Communist Party of Cuba) and there was no answer anywhere. Carrying water from the rivers, they told us every day that they would come and it was a lie. Mothers with children went to the Government and there was no clear answer until we couldn’t take it anymore and we threw ourselves away. everyone on the street,” he told Martí News a resident who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
There, before the dozens of people demanding solutions, a representative of the PCC came and asked for understanding because the problem affected the entire town. “Well this is complete Mayarí, it is not Seboruco, if you want I will explain, if not, I will shut up and continue walking,” he said. His empathy ran out when he realized he was being recorded: “You can’t record me because that’s against the law,” he snapped. Several hours later, various reports state, the service reached the community.
“We are calling the command post and they hang up the phone on me. So, what do women and children have to do? We will take to the streets if they don’t give us the power. We will do like in Seboruco”
Pontezuela, another rural area of Mayari came out with cauldrons on friday nightin a more common type of protest than the other two, which took place in broad daylight and with an open face. There, the mayor and a political police officer stated that they did not yet know the extent of the damage or when services would be restored and they asked the population for more patience.
The last clear count of those affected without electricity in Holguín occurred on November 14, when there were still more than 52,000 residents without power. “We know that there are still areas waiting for attention. We have not forgotten anyone. We continue trying to reach each affected site, repair each breakdown, and return normality to each home. This Tuesday, 336,521 Holguín residents have service, we do not stop. Thank you for the patience, solidarity and trust,” added the province’s electricity company on the 19th in a Facebook post showing the unsuccessful repair of the Guairajal poles.
In the midst of this situation, the Facebook page La Tijera has become echo of rumors supported by countless commentators. In a publication this Sunday, the account denounced a dispute between local UNE administrators and residents of Manzanillo, in the province of Granma, who claimed the workers for influence peddling and bribes. “Neighbors denounced that the effects on the electrical service are not due to the population, but to the uncontrolled increase in private businesses—including illegal bakeries, welding workshops, and refrigeration centers for sausages and meat—that operate thanks to bribes to UNE officials, managers, and linemen,” the report said. post. It added that the inspection does not work and pointed out some specific businesses that paid to enter prioritized circuits being entertainment venues, among other irregularities.
A former worker of the Matanzas electrical company has confirmed to Martí News That is not only the case, but the same thing happens throughout the Island. “I saw the corruption that moves within the Electric Company. It is so high that you reach out to any lineman, offer him money and you get the service you need without having to go through the happy state channel,” said the specialist, Yanan Camaraza Medina.
“There are two transformers that supply the nearby neighborhood of the Cooperative, which have service 24 hours a day, because millionaire interests of people living in the United States move there”
A resident of Unión de Reyes, he stated that the town of Juan Gualberto Gómez has been without service for weeks, but there are “two transformers that supply the nearby neighborhood of the Cooperative, which have service 24 hours a day, because there are millionaire interests of people based in the United States who have their businesses, their investments here in Cuba and, of course, they move bribes.”
Camaraza Medina maintains that it has also been reported that bribes are accepted at the Provincial Cargo Dispatch in exchange for improving the conditions of the circuit and that there are more provinces in which cases of this type have occurred, among them Cienfuegos. There, in the municipality of Aguada, there are four circuits that are exempt from long blackouts, including those that host Party and Government facilities.
“If you pay, they will transfer you to the protected zone. This has been seen here in several houses that have been reconnected in the cooperative neighborhood because they paid, and they are close, and the linemen come and do the work in a furtive manner and connect the houses,” the specialist told Martí Newswhich reviews several more cases of a situation that is not new, but becomes more desperate in these moments of deep energy crisis.
