Residents of Regla and El Vedado, in Havana, staged new protests with pot-banging on Saturday night against the prolonged blackouts that have left some areas with only two hours of electricity for four consecutive days, according to videos shared on social media.
Several users who commented on the images specified that one of the scenes corresponds to 10 de Octubre Street, in Regla.
In the nighttime videos, captured discreetly from behind vegetation, several people can be seen gathered in the street, along with a motorcycle with its headlight on and a vehicle with red taillights.
In another one of the clips you can hear someone, apparently a member of the National Revolutionary Police: "Operational guard come come come... turn on the light... 5 or 6 days and running."
The protests were not confined to a single location. Users on social media reported that at the same time there were simultaneous pot-banging protests in Guanabacoa, in the El Roble neighborhood, in Pomo de Oro, and in Reparto Naranjo.
They also reported on expressions of discontent in La Timba (Nuevo Vedado) and in Santos Suárez, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, which shows that the dissatisfaction spread across several municipalities in the capital simultaneously.
The demonstrations this Saturday are a continuation of a wave of protests that has been shaking Havana for over a week.
On Friday, residents of Maceo Street in Regla blocked the public road demanding water and electricity and stopped at least one bus. The authorities sent a water truck, but the protesters flatly rejected it.
"They brought a pipe, and the people refuse to touch a bucket of water, saying to put the water and the current," described a witness.
On Thursday, uniformed military personnel attempted to contain the protesters in that same area, while on the previous Tuesday, coinciding with the 95th birthday of Raúl Castro, cacerolazos erupted in El Vedado, Centro Habana, Playa, Habana Vieja, Cayo Hueso, and San Miguel del Padrón, and in at least one instance, the protesters managed to push back the police without any arrests taking place.
The backdrop is an electricity crisis of historic proportions. On Saturday, the Electric Union reported a mere availability of 1,090 MW against a demand of 3,050 MW, with a projected deficit of nearly 2,000 MW during peak hours, leaving approximately 65% of the country without power.
On Saturday afternoon, the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant in Felton, Holguín province, went offline from the national electric system, further worsening the energy deficit already impacted by the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas.
The water crisis exacerbates the situation, as without electricity, the aqueduct pumps do not operate. Nearly 2.7 million Cubans lack regular access to drinking water, and in Havana, the OPS/WHO identified an 80% impact on water availability.
Repression accompanies the protests. Cubalex documented at least 14 arrests in Havana related to demonstrations against power outages since March 6, 2026.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded over 1,200 protests in March and more than 1,100 in April, representing a 29.5% increase compared to the same month in 2025, with a sustained escalation that shows no signs of abating in the face of the regime's complete lack of structural solutions.
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