MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) counted 392 public protests on the island during the recently ended month of May; a figure that exceeds by 22 the 370 demonstrations registered in April.
According to the last report of the independent platform, published this Friday, June 2, the protests, many of them motivated by the exacerbation of the food insecuritywere registered in the 15 provinces of the country.
The most active territory was the province of Havana with 162 protests, followed by Holguín with 31 and Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba, both with 20, the document specifies.
Protests related to civil and political rights (DCP) included solo demonstrations in the streets demanding the release of political prisoners and other demands, banners with anti-government slogans hung in homes or entered by hackers on official websites, direct questions about the functionality of the system and the inability and excuses of the government.
While the demonstrations related to economic and social rights (DES) were mainly focused on the exacerbation of the two crises that most affect the population for now: that of high prices and the scarcity and poor quality of food and that of the dysfunctional public health system.
The NGO dedicates special mention to the demonstrations that occurred last May 6th in Caimanera, Guantanamo province, where hundreds of Guantanamo residents took to the streets due to the lack of food and the precarious conditions of the health system.
“The repression was not long in coming: a detachment of the Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior or Black Berets mercilessly charged the protesters with clubs. Relatives of the first five detainees, Yandris Pelier Matos, the brothers Felipe Correa Martínez and Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez, and the brothers Rodi and Daniel Álvarez González also reported the brutality of the repression against Yeris Curbelo Aguilera, a journalist with the independent group Palenque Visión : Alarcón Martínez was kicked in the head, his brother Felipe Octavio was hit everywhere when he tried to help Luis Miguel and their sister, Caridad Alarcón Martínez, was slapped. Meanwhile, Pelier Matos, another of the detainees, had his head smashed open”, recalls the OCC.
