Residents of the Vista Hermosa neighborhood and Mármol Street in Altamira, Santiago de Cuba, took to the streets on Sunday night to demand the restoration of electricity service, after several hours without power, according to reports shared on social media.
Videos shared by activists and independent journalists show dozens of people shouting and banging metal objects while demanding "Electricity!" in the darkness.
The opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), reported on X (formerly Twitter) that “the repressive forces arrived at the scene immediately after the protest began.” Ferrer also noted that “there is no food for the millions of poor Cubans, there is no electricity, no medicine, nothing good, but there are many repressive forces.”
On his Instagram, the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada also shared images from the protest and noted that the residents of Mármol Street, in Altamira, took to the streets "to demand the restoration of electric service."
On its YouTube channel, UNPACU indicated that shortly after the protest began, the authorities restored electricity to the area, a reaction that the organization interpreted as a direct result of the pressure from the neighbors.
The protest is taking place against a backdrop of a deep energy crisis, with daily blackouts lasting more than 10 hours in several provinces of eastern Cuba. Santiago de Cuba has been one of the most affected areas by the power cuts, which has heightened public discontent.
The regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel, which has not made official statements regarding this new episode of protest, continues to fail to provide effective solutions to the electrical crisis or the overall decline in living conditions on the island.
A tired island of darkness
The protests over blackouts have become the most visible expression of public discontent in Cuba. In recent months, CiberCuba has documented a growing wave of demonstrations in various provinces, from Havana to the eastern part of the country, where the lack of electricity has left thousands of families in darkness for extended periods.
In the capital, residents from various municipalities took to the streets in September following another blackout of the National Electric System, the fifth in less than a year, amid sweltering nights without electricity.
In the east, the discontent has been even more pronounced. Communities in Gibara (Holguín) and Baire, in Contramaestre (Santiago de Cuba), also took to the streets to protest in October, fed up with the endless blackouts, food shortages, and lack of clean drinking water.
The authorities, instead of providing solutions, have responded with a police presence and empty speeches, while the Electric Union officially admits to a generation deficit that condemns the country to massive and prolonged blackouts.
According to data from the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC), in October 2025, more than 1,200 civic actions and protests were recorded across the island, many of them related to blackouts, shortages, and repression.
Despite official announcements of a "gradual recovery of the system" or "rotating blackouts," Cubans feel that the situation is not improving. In Havana, the government itself confirmed that it would maintain the schedule of power outages, which was interpreted as a tacit acknowledgment that the crisis is here to stay.
In that context of daily desperation, the protest in Vista Hermosa and Altamira, in Santiago de Cuba, stands out as a new outburst of indignation in a country where, each night without electricity, the feeling grows that the people's patience is fading faster than the power plants of the regime.
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