Cacerolazos in Havana after 48 hours without electricity: Desperation grows

Desperation is growing in Cuba amid the chaos unleashed by more than 48 hours of collapse of the national electric power system (SEN), a situation that has led residents of Havana to stage protests with pots and pans this Saturday night in different municipalities of the capital.

"Strong pot-banging protest in part of Nuevo Vedado after nearly 36 hours without electricity," reported journalist Yoani Sánchez on X, director of the independent media outlet 14ymedio.

Reports of a similar nature are starting to appear on social media. The fall of the SEN also brought with it an Internet blackout, which limits and hinders the publication of complaints and testimonies of the discontent of the Cubans.

"The pots are sounding in my neighborhood," reported Cuban art critic Jorge Gómez de Mello on Facebook. For her part, the user identified on that social network as Tania García, a resident of the capital, indicated that in Old Havana, "the sounds of pots and screams" were heard.

Also in the Bahía neighborhood of the municipality of Habana del Este, residents banged pots, horns, and other utensils to demand the restoration of electricity service, according to testimony collected on Facebook by a user identified as Mayara González Ballesté, who stated that "thanks to the protests with pots, the people of Bahía already have light."