It is not a novelty, but it is indicative of the state of tension in the spheres of power of the Cuban regime: government profiles on social networks again shared images this Thursday of the apparent calm that is being experienced on the streets of Cuba.
"It is pleasant to walk the streets of Guanabacoa on this evening and enjoy our Plaza Adolfo del Castillo and surrounding streets in this #LaHabanaDeTodos. #UnidosXCuba #CubaEnPaz," said the Municipal Administration Council of Guanabacoa on their social media.
The publication shared photographs taken in public spaces of the locality, in which there are barely any people seen on the streets, and which happened to be illuminated amidst the wave of frequent and prolonged blackouts that are affecting Cuba.
After the protests that took place on March 17 (17M), in which a crowd of people from Santiago took to the streets shouting "power and food!", the authorities of the province resorted to the same strategy.
Profiles of state companies, leaders, officialist journalists, and even professionals from other sectors formed a large "hive of bees," as the trolls activated by State Security agents have been called, in an attempt to convey calmness with photos of empty streets in Santiago de Cuba.
Precisely, from this province, Cuban activists reported on Wednesday the presence of a large police deployment out of fear of popular protests, with an imposing presence of trucks, patrols, and a large number of agents from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and special troops from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), known as "black berets".
At the beginning of May 2023, the Cuban regime attempted to pretend "calm" after the protests that erupted in Caimanera, Guantánamo, and were violently repressed by forces of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
State press media, officialist journalists, and dictatorship supporters shared images on the Internet of empty streets in Caimanera, in an attempt to downplay the protests.
In mid-July 2022, while Cubans from several provinces took to the streets to protest against frequent blackouts and food shortages, the Cuban regime and its supporters began posting images and messages on social media in an attempt to show that calmness prevailed in the country.
The profiles of citizens who defend the dictatorship rushed to publish photographs of empty and calm cities, after a crowd of people took to the streets of Los Palacios, in Pinar del Río, banging pots and chanting phrases against the police and the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Communications shared several tweets calling to "resist any aggression" after reports of Internet outages in several provinces to prevent the spread of events.
This fact was confirmed by the data journalism website Inventario, which recorded a decrease in connectivity within the Island in at least nine cities, something that is also part of the regime's strategy following the experience of the historic protests on July 11th in Cuba.
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