"The blockade is within, not outside," a Guantanamero is heard saying in response to the sarcastic gaze of a local leader she confronts.
The eloquent statement of this weary Cuban was shared by communicator Mario Vallejo and seems to correspond to the protest in the Ho Chi Minh neighborhood, in the city of Guantánamo.
Protest in Guantánamo
On Friday, several residents of Guantánamo, including the woman who appears in the video, took to the streets to demand "answers" and immediate assistance due to the lack of drinking water and electricity following Hurricane Melissa.
The demonstration —which gathered around a hundred people— denounced many days without basic services, food shortages, and a lack of official information about the recovery; the atmosphere remained tense even after the arrival of police and State Security officials, who contributed to dispersing the event.
The testimonials collected by José Raúl Gallegos and the media Martí Noticias describe a picture of institutional neglect and social urgency.
“We are desperate. We have no electricity, we have no water, and no one is responding to us. There are children and the elderly here who cannot continue like this,” said a neighbor who wrote to our newsroom on the condition of anonymity.
The protesters confronted local officials and workers from the electric company.
"This is a dictatorship, the whole world knows it", the source told our newsroom. “We are not dogs, we are human beings,” “How much longer will the abuse continue?” they added.
They also reported that "there are donations there that they want to take" and that they have been "sleeping without power for days."
The protest was concentrated on the streets Moncada and 12 Sur, in front of the tent where the neighborhood grocery store operates.
According to activist Miguel Ángel López Herrera, a resident of the area, the distress escalated when, after months of shortages, only “two pounds of rice” arrived for the families, as confirmed by Martí Noticias.
"People can't take it anymore. Too many illnesses, no medications. There isn't a house that hasn't been affected by the hurricane, many without roofs," he stated.
Videos circulated on social media showing the moment when residents demanded the presence of authorities and "an effective response" to the humanitarian crisis.
According to reports, the protest dissipated after the intervention of the police and State Security agents; there were no reports of arrests at the scene, but local sources warned that tensions remain and the restoration of services is still uncertain.
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