“Here in Regla we are in the street closing with buckets and knobs due to the lack of water,” said one of the protesters.
MIAMI, United States. – Residents of the Havana municipality of Regla closed a street with buckets and knobs to demand the restoration of the water supply, after several days of shortages, according to a video received and broadcast by CyberCuba. The closure attracted the presence of police officers.
“Here in Regla we are in the street closing with buckets and knobs due to the lack of water,” said one of the protesters, according to the independent media report. In addition, the video shows that neighbors placed household containers along the width of the road to prevent the passage of vehicles and make the prolonged shortage visible.
CyberCuba He indicated that the protesters were demanding from the authorities a clear restoration schedule and palliative measures while the problem persists.
During the police deployment, an agent rebuked a neighbor about the previous procedures carried out before the institutions, suggesting that she should have remained at the local government headquarters until obtaining a response. Despite the intervention of law enforcement, until the moment the facts were disseminated, the situation of shortages continued, according to CyberCuba.
The episode in Regla is part of a scenario of growing unrest due to the precariousness of basic services in the capital. Street closures and pot-banging have become common in Havana and other regions of Cuba.
In fact, the lack of drinking water and electricity outages have been two of the most frequent triggers for local protests in recent months.
On this Thursday night, residents of Baire (Contramaestre municipality, Santiago de Cuba) they took to the streets to protest blackouts, lack of water and deteriorating living conditions. “More than 30 hours without electricity or drinking water, several infected by the arbovirus,” reported on social networks the activist Yamilka Laffita (known as Lara Crofs).
The independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada was one of the first to report on what happened in Baire. “Tonight, around 7:40 pm, the town of Baire in the Contramaestre municipality broke the silence and took to the streets to the sound of cauldrons and shouts of protest,” he wrote on his Facebook page. According to that same report, the demonstrations began in the La Salada, El Transformador and Avicinia neighborhoods, and brought together dozens of people demanding responses to the economic crisis, power outages and lack of food.
A witness to the demonstration contacted by CubaNet He described the route and the containment operation: “The people came out tired, with their cauldrons, shouting. They arrived at the park, where the Police and State Security were already there with motorcycles and the fire truck.”
During the first minutes of the protest, internet access was interrupted throughout the municipality, according to the source. The connection would have been reestablished approximately half an hour later, allowing residents to document part of the events with their phones.
