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The Cuban regime launched this Monday the Fifth National Exercise for Prevention and Confrontation against Crime, corruption, drugs, illegal activities, and social indiscipline, a coordinated operation by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) that comes directly after a week of massive protests in Havana and other cities across the country.
The protests, which took place between May 13 and 17 in at least 12 municipalities in Havana, were described as the most widespread in the capital since July 11, 2021, and were characterized by slogans such as "Food and electricity!" and "Down with the dictatorship!".
The Cuban News Agency (ACN) and the newspaper Granma presented the exercise as a response to the "intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade" and the "oil embargo," attributing the crisis to external pressures from the United States.
However, the official language reveals a more immediate objective: the text indicates that the exercise "includes actions against acts of vandalism and social indiscipline, sometimes stimulated for subversive purposes, which generate material damage and risks to the life and integrity of individuals."
Human rights organizations interpret this wording as a direct criminalization of social protest, consistent with the use of provisions from the Cuban Penal Code—such as "disobedience"—to target those whom the authorities consider dissenters.
The exercise takes place against the backdrop of the worst energy crisis in Cuba in decades. The electric system recorded a record deficit of 2,153 MW on May 13, with power outages of up to 22 hours a day in Havana. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, publicly admitted that Cuba had "absolutely no fuel, no diesel, only associated gas."
This extreme scarcity triggered the wave of protests that the regime is now responding to with this operation. The government reacted during the demonstrations with police deployments, internet outages, and arrests, with at least 14 detainees reported in Havana.
Among the declared priorities of the exercise are the protection of the National Electro-Energetic System and fuels, the production and marketing of food, and the prevention of drug trafficking and corruption.
Miguel Díaz-Canel participated in the previous edition of the exercise, stating that these sessions "constitute an opportunity to ensure citizen tranquility, respect for public order, social discipline, and participation in the country's main tasks."
This is the fifth operation of this kind in less than two years. The timeline includes editions in December 2024, March 2025, June 2025, and September 2025. In the first edition, more than 3,300 arrests and trials occurred in less than a week, with 83% resulting in precautionary measures of provisional imprisonment.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC) recorded 1,133 protests in April 2026, an increase of 29.5% compared to the same month in 2025, while Cubalex documented 229 demonstrations in March 2026, the highest monthly figure since July 11, 2021.
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