More than 600 protests registered in Cuba in June

The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC) recorded 671 protests and public denunciations on the island during June, a figure that reflects the high level of social discontent and growing opposition against the communist regime.

According to the latest report from the OCC, the total is slightly lower than that of May (716), but confirms the state of discontent towards a government that resorts to "repression to retain power, while its energy strategy was failing again and its abandonment of housing construction and environmental sanitation was exploding in the form of collapses and floods."

Undoubtedly, economic inflation, accentuated by a persistent fuel crisis, shortages of standardized food and medical supplies, among other issues, fuel the fire in a country that increasingly resembles a pressure cooker about to explode.

The text also indicates that the protests and complaints were met with the arrests of dozens of participants in congas and pot-banging protests; five to seven-year prison sentences for five activists for taking to the streets with signs and uploading a video to social media; harassment of religious individuals, private businesses, artists, philanthropists, and other members of civil society.

Arbitrary arrests, abuses, and prosecutions against opponents and independent journalists were not long in coming; while complaints about public services increased, mostly due to frequent blackouts, problems with the water supply service, and lack of attention to urban sanitation.

Citizen insecurity captured 102 demonstrations of discontent in June. In a meeting with young Americans, Díaz-Canel stated that in Cuba there are no missing persons or murders, yet in just the sixth month of the year, the OCC recorded 21 reports of missing persons and 27 of murders or homicides, the text states.

Another issue of protests was related to public health and the increasing spread of the Oropouche fever from east to west, while food remains a concern for the islanders due to both scarcity and high prices.

"For the first time, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) included the Cuban child population among those suffering from severe food poverty," the report stated, also noting the increase in begging, child labor, collapses due to heavy rainfall, and the poor state of the housing stock.

According to the OCC, the spontaneous protests and complaints counted represent 38.3 percent more than the 414 protest demonstrations registered in the same month of 2023 and encompassed all 15 provinces of the country, as well as the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.

Just a couple of days ago, residents of Reina Street, in the municipality of Centro Havana, blocked the traffic on the road in protest of the lack of water and the government's poor management in addressing the issue.

The protesters demanded the supply of water, even if it was through tanker trucks," Cubanet reported when echoing this event.

Something similar happened in Old Havana, where dozens of Cubans gathered at the intersection of Egido and Acosta streets to protest the lack of vital liquid, as the government had not offered them any solution, according to a video shared by the independent media outlet.

Three weeks ago, after more than two months without drinking water, the residents of the town of Ecoa 13 in Villa Clara, on the road to Camajuaní in Santa Clara, closed the avenue in protest against the negligence of the authorities and demanded the restoration of the service.

The protesters confirmed that they had been without water for more than two months, so they took to the streets to block traffic shouting "we want water".