Neighbors of the Block 1 of Nuevo Vedado took to the streets to protest this Wednesday after experiencing 24 consecutive hours without electricity, in an action documented in video by user Alicia García on Facebook.
The protest took place during the day, just like the simultaneous pot-banging rally in San Miguel del Padrón, where residents gathered in front of the municipal government's headquarters demanding "Power and food!".
Nightly protests have become the norm in the wave of pot-banging that is shaking Havana, particularly because darkness provides greater anonymity and reduces the risk of retaliation.
That two distinct demonstrations erupted in two different municipalities in broad daylight points to a threshold of desperation that no longer waits for night to express itself.
According to the title of García's video — "Block 1 of Nuevo Vedado after 24 hours without power. Power was restored 10 minutes after" — the pressure from residents had an almost immediate effect: the supply was reestablished just ten minutes after the recording began.
Nuevo Vedado, located in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality just a few blocks from the Palace of the Revolution and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, has a recent history of protests: pot-banging on March 13, 14, and 15, another in front of the Central Committee on March 22, and a massive pot-banging protest on April 17 during a total blackout with a projected deficit of 1,842 MW.
The two daytime protests this Wednesday add to a series of actions recorded over the last 48 hours: a nighttime cacerolazo in Reparto Bahía with chants of "Down with the dictatorship!" on Tuesday night, cacerolazos with bonfires in Marianao early Wednesday morning, the blockage of Calzada de Concha in Luyanó on Monday, and graffiti saying "Homeland and Life" against Díaz-Canel on electrical infrastructure in Arroyo Naranjo.
The energy backdrop is devastating: the Unión Eléctrica projected a deficit of 2,020 MW for the nighttime peak this Wednesday, with an availability of only 1,230 MW against a demand of 3,250 MW.
On Tuesday, the actual maximum impact reached 2,113 MW at 8:40 PM, the highest figure of the year.
This Wednesday, Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged on Facebook that "the situation of the National Electro-Energetic System has been particularly tense in recent days," and admitted that in April only one fuel ship arrived out of the minimum of eight needed per month.
Cuba has been without Venezuelan crude oil since November 2025, without Russian oil since late April 2026, and Mexico suspended its shipments in January 2026.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,133 protests in April 2026, a 29.5% increase compared to April 2025, and the regime has responded with militarization and at least 14 arrests in Havana since March 6 related to pot-banging protests.
Desperation, according to witnesses cited by independent media, "grows every day as living conditions continue to deteriorate amid constant blackouts and a deep economic crisis."
Filed under: