Students at Universidad Marta Abreu de Villa Clara are threatened after protesting due to lack of electricity and water.

Scholarship students from the Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas (UCLV) in Santa Clara have been without electricity or drinking water for days and were threatened by State Security agents and authorities from the academic institution after protesting the unsustainable situation.

The fact was reported this Tuesday by the Academic Freedom Observatory (OLA) on Facebook, with photos of dozens of young people with buckets trying to get a bit of water and screenshots of a message sent by a student revealing the problem and the threats they received if they made the lack of water and electricity, which they have been suffering from for days, public on social media.

The text sent to OLA urgently requests help to raise awareness online about the lack of water and electricity in the UCLV student residence, which has been ongoing for days, leading students to protest with a pot-banging demonstration over the weekend.

"I request help to make the situation of the students at UCLV visible," wrote one of the young people, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals. "We have not had electricity since 4 pm and it is predicted to last until 1 am."

The person who relayed the call for help revealed that "three days ago there was a pot-banging protest that ended with a State Security agent kicking down a door."

On top of that, the university administration informed them that "there was not enough fuel to bring water trucks, and the water reserves have run out."

The text expresses the concern among the scholars because "there is only a little (water) left in the refrigerators of the dining hall" and they "went down with buckets to get it so they could bathe."

The letter states that the area where the university is located has always been protected, but acknowledges that, "apparently, the energy situation is critical."

The student pleaded for their message to be shared, "so that this torture of studying under a dictatorship does not go silent," and concluded by requesting that their identity be protected because they could be expelled from the program. "They have threatened us that we cannot publish," they stated.

In its denunciation text online, the Observatory of Academic Freedom held UCLV rector Luis A. Barranco Olivera and his management council responsible for “what happens to the students from here on out,” while also denouncing the violation of university autonomy due to the interference and intimidation of the political police against defenseless university students.

The authorities of the UCLV have not commented on these events so far; however, in recent hours, they have shared a series of posts on their official networks aimed at presenting an image of apparent calm at the university and that academic and extracurricular activities are proceeding normally.