Indignant Cubans closed Monte Street in Central Havana during the early hours of this Friday in protest against the endless blackouts affecting the country's capital.
The protest took place at the corner of Monte and Anton Recio, Centro Habana, after a transformer that had already been reported several times by the neighbors exploded.
"The transformer blew up, after several days of the transformer blowing up, people have had enough," said a young woman who recorded the protest.
The protesters, in rejection of the authorities' neglect to solve the problem, overturned the garbage containers in the middle of the street.
"Havana is not the countryside," said the woman, reaffirming the old belief that "blackouts in Havana should be short because people go out into the streets."
The energy crisis on the island has reached historic levels and even in the country's capital, power outages extend for up to six hours.
The poor state of the electrical grid, as well as the fuel shortage and constant breakdowns of the generation units, leave a large part of the population, especially in provinces in the interior of the island, without service for up to 20 hours a day, causing widespread popular discontent.
Although the regime assured that it was "a strategy" in which the thermal power plants would be repaired to ensure a summer without disruptions; the eve, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel made a shift in his speech and stated that "in the current conditions, it is very difficult" to keep his promise.
The ruler stated that a blackout, under current conditions, is very difficult. "There may be a blackout at a certain time, so we will work to make sure they are not prolonged, that they are not of long duration," he added.
The director of the Electric Union (UNE), Alfredo López Valdés, said the day before that the country does not have any additional generation capacity, and therefore recommended reducing consumption in households "for the benefit of the country."
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