"Water and light! That’s what we want!"
That was the cry that echoed this Thursday in several streets of the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó, where dozens of residents staged a pot-banging protest after going more than 30 consecutive hours without electricity and with irregular access to water.
A video shared on social media by the independent CubaNet shows residents gathered on Rosa Enríquez Street and at the intersection of Concha and Atarés, banging pots and demanding basic services while officers from the National Revolutionary Police arrived at the scene to monitor the protest.
According to other reports and testimonies shared on social media, since dawn, the sound of pot-banging has been heard in the area, where the accumulated frustration from prolonged power outages has spilled over into the streets.
The neighbors reported that, in addition to being without electricity for more than a day, they also had no water or gas for cooking.
"Cuba is in chaos right now. People are going over 30 hours without electricity. They also have no gas or water," wrote activist Ariel Maceo Téllez on the Facebook page SOS Cuba.
What happened in Luyanó was not an isolated incident.
On the same day, protests were also reported in other areas of Havana. Journalist José Raúl Gallego reported on a cacerolazo in Santos Suárez after 31 hours without electricity, while in Lawton residents complained of power cuts lasting over 48 hours.
The activist Yoel Cruz stated on social media that he had been without electricity for more than two days and unable to feed himself properly. He reported that after the protests, two officers remained watching his home.
The protests reflect the growing social discontent caused by the deterioration of the national electrical system.
For this Thursday, the Electric Union predicted a generation deficit of 1,920 megawatts during peak demand hours, a figure that confirms the severity of the energy crisis. The day before, the deficit exceeded 2,000 megawatts and the system remained affected throughout the day.
Breakdowns at several thermoelectric plants and a lack of fuel continue to limit the country's generation capacity. More than a hundred distributed generation plants remain out of service due to a fuel shortage, worsening a situation that affects millions of Cubans.
The water shortage has also become a direct consequence of the blackouts.
Due to the fact that most of the pumping system relies on electricity, hundreds of thousands of residents in Havana face frequent disruptions in supply. Official data indicates that over 376,000 people in the capital lack regular access to drinking water, and more than 309,000 experience issues directly linked to power outages.
The casserole protest in Luyanó adds to a growing wave of civic demonstrations that have spread through various neighborhoods in Havana in recent months.
Since March, protests and demonstrations have been reported in areas such as Centro Habana, Regla, Guanabacoa, Alamar, La Lisa, Cotorro, San Miguel del Padrón, and Jesús María. Just this past Sunday, residents of Regla blocked a street to demand the restoration of electricity services and the supply of water.
The rise in discontent has also been accompanied by a repressive response from the authorities.
In a city increasingly affected by blackouts, water shortages, and the decline of essential services, the demand heard in Luyanó encapsulates the sentiment of thousands of Cubans: "Water and light!"
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