MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) registered 370 public protests in April 2023, a month that was marked by the worsening of the gasoline crisis.
The protests in that period “included from stark posts, memes and videos posted on social networks to graffiti and protests in person in parks and other public places,” he specified in his statement. report the NGO monthly.
Regarding the shortage of gasoline, “which came to add to the string of calamities that daily life in Cuba has become,” the Observatory recalled that it affected public and private transportation, caused kilometer-long queues at gas stations, turned normally deserted poles crowded cities, forced to paralyze classes and work activities and for the first time in decades forced the regime to suspend the traditional parade of the first of May.
In April there was also an increase in protests motivated by critical health problems that have not been addressed because there are no specialists to treat them.
The 370 protests recorded in April 2023 represent an increase of 25.94% compared to those registered in the same month last year (293), said this organization, based in Miami, Florida.
“If in March the protests related to economic and social rights (DES) and those based on civil and political rights (DCP) were distributed almost equally (49.2% DES, 50.8% DCP), in April the protests predominated. DES (216, 58.4%) while 154, or 41.6%, were claims supported by civil and political rights,” the report states.
The 154 demonstrations demanding civil and political rights included “graffiti with anti-government slogans and against the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), criticism of the ineptitude of the senior leaders, calls on social networks to change or introduce changes to the system, protests before government agencies and reactions against the repression”, he specified.
In its monthly report for the month of March, the OCC had indicated that the expression “We are starving” was one of the most recurrent in the economic and social protests. These protests continued into April; a month in which the food situation for Cubans continued to worsen.
With this panorama, considers the Cuban Conflict Observatory, “the possibility that public protests will once again take to the streets of the Island has been exacerbated”; as well as “the image of the regime, an important factor in obtaining credits and private loans or in the form of development cooperation, continues to score negative points.”
