Residents of the Havana municipality of Regla took to the streets this Sunday in front of the Municipal Government headquarters, demanding the restoration of electric service and drinking water, chanting "We want electricity!" following a similar protest that also took place on Friday, which reflects the accumulated frustration after consecutive days of outages.
Dozens of protesters blocked Maceo Street, between Fresneda and Perdomo, expressing their dissatisfaction with the simultaneous lack of water and electricity in the area, according to numerous reports shared on social media.
The authorities tried to calm the situation by sending a water tanker, but the residents outright rejected the measure.
«They brought a pipe and people refuse to touch a bucket of water. Let them supply the water and the current», wrote Glenda Rancaño, who shared images of the protest on her social media, and was quoted by the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press.
Residents report being without electricity for more than 24 hours in some areas, which also hinders the pumping of water to buildings and homes that rely on electric equipment for supply, creating a dual crisis that has sparked public outrage.
"We are not dogs, we are humans," wrote one of the participants on social media, while others pointed out that the elderly, children, and entire families are facing increasingly difficult conditions.
"Now. Protest in Regla after more than 34 hours without electricity," also reported the journalist Magdiel Jorge Castro.
This is a different demonstration taking place in another location in the municipality: "Residents of the Regla municipality in Havana are currently protesting in front of the People's Power headquarters in the Martí area between Aranguren and Céspedes to denounce the prolonged blackouts affecting the neighborhood."
The situation in Regla has a direct cause: the Patana de Regla and the Patana de Melones, electric generation units that supply the area, were out of service at the time of the protests, worsening the power outages in the municipality.
The national energy situation is critical. According to the Electric Union, this Sunday the system started the day with only 1,000 MW available against a demand of 2,570 MW, with 1,572 MW affected since 6:00 a.m. For the peak evening hours, a deficit of 1,990 MW was projected, leaving about 65% of the country without electricity.
Among the causes of the collapse are failures in thermoelectric plants and 106 distributed generation plants out of service due to a lack of fuel, with 1,203 MW unavailable for that reason.
The protest in Regla is not an isolated incident. Last Tuesday, protesters in San Lázaro forced the police to retreat after more than 20 hours without electricity, and on Wednesday, residents of Lawton reported 36 consecutive hours without power.
This same Sunday, there were reported new protests with pots and pans in Regla and El Vedado, with some areas receiving only two hours of electricity in four days, amidst a wave of protests that has been sweeping through Havana and other provinces since at least March 2026.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,245 protests in March and 1,133 in April, the highest figures since July 11, 2021. The organization Cubalex documented at least 14 arrests in Havana related to protests against blackouts since March 6, 2026, while the state response has included police deployments, special forces, and internet outages.
«Protest in Regla today, Sunday. Share, you never know what spark will ignite,» wrote user Isis Ro while sharing one of the videos of the demonstration on Facebook.
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