After two consecutive days without electricity, discontent is spreading through towns and cities in Cuba, where on Saturday citizens protested with pot-banging in the capital and took to the streets in Santiago de Cuba.
Independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada shared videos of protests that took place in this city in Eastern Cuba on his social media, with dozens of people shouting "turn on the power!" and banging pots and pans in the streets.
According to what was reported in one of its publications, police patrols and state security agents appeared within minutes at the protests and prohibited the recording of the events.
At the shout of "food and electricity!" – a demand previously expressed by the people of Santiago – the residents of the San Pedrito neighborhood took to the streets this Saturday and demanded that the Santiago authorities provide a solution to the critical situation they are facing.
The images from the video shared by Mayeta Labrada showed a crowd of neighbors protesting in the streets.
Police patrols also appeared in San Pedrito, a humble neighborhood located in the low area of the northern bay, where thousands of Santiago residents barely survive in precarious housing and are surrounded by garbage, creating an unhealthy environment that is hardly addressed by the social programs of the local authorities.
The total collapse of the national electricity system (SEN), which has been occurring in Cuba since Friday, October 18, at noon, has further worsened the precarious and unsafe situation faced by the population of Santiago. This Saturday, residents gathered in the municipality of San Luis in front of a state establishment to buy coal for cooking, according to a report on social media by Mayeta Labrada.
At the end of March, following the massive protests that took place in Santiago de Cuba - which led the authorities to try to quell them from a rooftop - the archbishop of that city, Monsignor Dionisio García Ibáñez, asked for electricity, food, and freedom from the Virgin of Charity of Copper during the Eucharist on Palm Sunday.
"We want to live with greater ease, we want to try to live a normal life where everyone can create their plan, their life project, where life is not a struggle and a never-ending work," said García Ibáñez at the feet of the Virgin.
The religious leader also lamented the "daily struggle to find the essentials for living, which often scarce."
"Our people have said, ask and repeat: 'electricity and food', is that unattainable?" questioned the archbishop, who also referred to the blackouts.
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