Dozens of residents from the town of Guatemala —also known as Preston— in the municipality of Mayarí, Holguín province, took to the streets Wednesday night to protest against the Cuban government, power outages, and water shortages, according to images shared by the independent media CubaNet.
The protesters marched banging pots and chanting slogans like "We can't take it anymore! Freedom!", "How long?", "We want electricity!" and "We want water!".
The march traveled through the streets of the town until it reached the local police station, where the protest continued in front of the precinct.
The day on Wednesday was the setting for a wave of protests across Cuba, with pots and pans being reported in Havana in neighborhoods such as El Vedado, Centro Habana, Regla, Habana Vieja, Cayo Hueso, and Playa, as well as in Placetas, Villa Clara, and other areas of Holguín.
That same night, in San Lázaro, Centro Habana, protesters managed to push back the police during a demonstration after more than 20 hours without electricity.
The protests coincided with the 95th birthday of Raúl Castro, who, alongside Díaz-Canel, leads the regime that has been plunging the country into a structural crisis for decades.
The immediate backdrop is an electricity crisis of historic proportions. The generation deficit nears 2,000 MW, with only 1,265 MW available against a peak demand of over 3,150 MW, leaving some areas without power for more than 30 consecutive hours.
The town of Guatemala is no stranger to protests. In March, its residents had already taken to the streets during the collapse of the National Electric System, which left Mayarí without electricity for up to 51 hours.
In June 2023, the same town saw protests over the lack of water, the same demand that was heard again this week in front of the police station.
The government has responded to the wave of protests in June with police deployments and internet outages in areas with the highest concentration of demonstrators.
This Thursday, the authorities restored electricity to residents of Havana amidst a heavy police presence, a response familiar to Cubans: putting out the fire with electric current while keeping the streets under surveillance.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,133 protests in April 2026, a 29.5% increase compared to the same month the previous year, and 1,245 in March, indicating a sustained escalation of public discontent after 67 years of communist dictatorship.
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