Residents of the El Palmar neighborhood in the Marianao municipality of Havana staged a scene rich in symbolism during the protests over the blackouts that shook Havana on Saturday night: amidst the darkness, they lit a bonfire with trash to illuminate the street and sang the national anthem.
The moment was broadcast live around 11:00 PM and later shared by independent journalist and investigator José Raúl Gallego, who emphasized the symbolic strength of the gesture amid the electricity crisis the country is facing.
The images, shared on social media, show several locals gathered around a small improvised bonfire while singing the Bayamo anthem. The scene takes place in the middle of streets completely darkened by the prolonged power outages affecting the capital and much of Cuba.
The protest in El Palmar adds to the second consecutive day of clanging pots and pans reported in various municipalities of Havana over the weekend. Videos and testimonies shared on social media reported demonstrations in areas such as Regla, Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padrón, Central Havana, Boyeros, and El Cotorro.
In many of these places, neighbors took to the streets or banged pots and pans from their homes to express their frustration over the blackouts that, in some areas of the country, exceed 20 hours a day.
The capital was also the scene of bonfires on several streets of Marianao, where residents burned tires and debris while chanting slogans and protesting the lack of electricity.
The protests are occurring amid a deep energy crisis. In recent days, the country experienced a near-total collapse of the National Electric System, leaving large areas without service and forcing authorities to initiate a complex restoration process.
Although the system has been gradually reconnected, the generation deficit remains high. For the recent nighttime peak hours, the Electric Union projected an availability of just over a thousand megawatts against a demand exceeding three thousand, a gap that results in widespread blackouts across the territory.
In that context of prolonged darkness, scenes like those in El Palmar reflect the growing frustration of many Cubans who, amidst pots and improvised bonfires, are beginning to publicly express their discontent with the situation in the country.
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