Residents of Centro Habana took to the streets on the night of this past Sunday to protest against the prolonged blackouts that are suffocating the Cuban capital, with pot banging and fires on public roads in the vicinity of Infanta and San Lázaro, according to images and testimonies shared on social media by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada.
In the shared video, clanging pots and pans can be heard while flames are seen in the street, at one of the busiest and most densely populated intersections in the capital.
This incident is part of a wave of protests that has spread through El Vedado, Playa, Regla, Old Havana, Cayo Hueso, San Miguel del Padrón, Marianao, Boyeros, and Tulipán, among other municipalities in the capital.
On June 4th, electricity was restored in several neighborhoods of Havana following the protests and a strong police presence, although the measure was temporary and did not address the underlying crisis.
The protests also reached other provinces. On June 5th, residents of Micro 2 in Santiago de Cuba held a pot-banging protest after being without electricity for more than ten days, and three women who participated in those demonstrations face possible sentences of up to ten years.
The root of popular indignation is an unprecedented energy crisis in Cuba: the national electric system is experiencing a deficit of between 1,960 and 2,000 MW against a peak demand of 3,050 MW, with only 1,060–1,090 MW available, leaving between 65% and 70% of the population without electricity simultaneously.
Last Saturday, precisely the day after the protests in Infanta and San Lázaro, 66% of the national territory was without electricity at the same time, according to projections from the Electric Union.
The worst deficit of the year was recorded on May 14, when the gap reached 2,174 MW and left nearly 70% of the country without power simultaneously.
The causes are structural: up to 11 of the 16 thermoelectric units have been out of service simultaneously, and 106 distributed generation plants remain inactive due to a lack of fuel, totaling 890 MW.
The oil shortage worsened since January 2026 due to reduced shipments from Venezuela and Mexico, and the depletion in early May of a Russian contribution of 100,000 tons of crude oil.
The system has experienced at least seven total collapses in 18 months, including a nationwide blackout on March 16, 2026 that lasted 29 hours and 29 minutes.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,245 protests in March 2026 and 1,133 in April, marking this wave of discontent as one of the most widespread since July 11, 2021.
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