Hundreds of people took to the streets this Friday morning in Nuevitas, Camagüey, in a demonstration not seen in Cuba since July 11, 2021.
The protest, as can be seen in numerous videos shared on social networks, was massive, lit by cell phone flashlights and motorcycle headlights and accompanied by saucepans, horns, palms and loud slogans.
Along with the cries that asked the end of blackouts –”Turn on the current, pinga”– also resounded those of “freedom” and “homeland and life”. Some citizens cried that irreverent motto repeated on 11J – “oe, police pinga” – and others, also like that Sunday last year, sang at the top of their lungs and in unison the National anthem.
“Díaz-Canel, singao, the people are tired”, Camagüeyans also chantedthus adding a new slogan in the expression of popular discontent.
The police arrived at the scene, says one of the participants in the protests, but “they could practically do nothing, because this was a sea of people”
According to residents of Nuevitas telling this newspaper, the demonstrators headed towards the headquarters of the local Communist Party, a building illuminated in the midst of the darkness of the power cut, crying out: “if they take it down again, we’ll throw it again,” “we want freedom” and the traditional “the people united will never be defeated”.
The police arrived at the scene, says one of the protesters, but “they could practically do nothing, because this was a sea of people.” Right away, she says, they turned on the power. “They scared us,” she says.
The demonstration in Nuevitas occurred shortly after electricity returned to Havana, which was almost completely dark for two hours due to an alleged breakdown in a high-voltage line, according to the Electric Union of Cuba.
Despite the outrage in Havana, only some residents of Luyanó banged their saucepans before they were turned on.
Places are being added to the map of the nightly protests due to the blackouts, which Justice 11J figure in more than fifty since the scheduled power cuts began, in mid-June, and for which there are detainees, assured the legal platform, about thirty people.
In Nuevitas, Luyanó, San Antonio de los Baños, Güira de Melena, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba or Pinar del Río they know one thing well: if they protest, the light comes on.
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