AREQUIPA, Peru – In the midst of the worst energy debacle in recent years in Cuba, during the night of this Saturday Cubans continued in the dark due to several incidents with generating blocks and the regime’s obsolete infrastructure.
At 10:15 PM, unit 1 of the Santa Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plant (CTE) was triggered. At that time they had already energized 120 circuits. This impact completely disconnected the western subsystem, explained Lázaro Guerra Hernández, director of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM).
Since the event, efforts were concentrated on starting the Antonio Guiteras CTE, which synchronized the center’s subsystem in the morning hours.
At the same time, the third unit of the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Power Plant, also known as Rente, in Santiago de Cuba, suffered a breakdown while accumulating load to synchronize, which led to the system collapse.
The event resulted in the collapse of a microsystem that affected the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, leaving them without electrical service.
The regime’s announcement about the synchronization of several circuits within the Island created expectations among the people who had been without electricity for more than 30 hours. However, the continuous disconnections and lack of progress motivated displays of popular discontent in various parts of the country.
According to videos on social media, multiple banging of pots and pans and peaceful protests occurred during the night of October 19. The demonstrations were concentrated mainly in the provinces of Havana and Santiago de Cuba.
A shared video on Facebook by the activist Juan Moreno, director of the community media of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) Amanecer Habanero, shows dozens of Cubans who stopped traffic in San Francisco de Paula, a street in the capital, and made pots and pans ring.
Other published material by independent journalist Daniel Benítez reports on another protest in which Cubans banged pots and pans during this Saturday night in Lawton.
Likewise, very close to that town, in Santo Suarez, Havana residents also made noises with pots and cauldrons, as can be heard in a video shared by CubaNet in X (formerly Twitter).
