Residents of Reparto Sueño in Santiago de Cuba banged pots and pans this Wednesday in protest against the prolonged blackouts that leave the area without electricity for almost the entire day, according to an independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on Facebook.
The protest was not limited to that neighborhood. Residents confirmed in the comments of the post that the banging of pots and pans was also heard in the streets of Santa Bárbara, in the Antonio Maceo neighborhood, Calle 17 of Veguita de Galo, Reparto Mármol, and Altamira.
A user described the situation as "TOTAL BLACKOUT ALL DAY LONG."
Another comment noted that in Buena Vista, Havana, the pots and pans were also heard on the same day.
The residents' frustration was evident in their online reactions. "We can't take it any longer," wrote one resident. "It's too much, enough already," stated another. "What we Cubans are going through is not easy," summarized a third voice.
The explosion this Wednesday occurred just one day after the Electric Company of Santiago reorganized the power outages into nine blocks, a scheme that leaves each area with only one or two hours of electricity per day, resulting in cuts of up to 22 consecutive hours.
The situation in Santiago worsened further after the **Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant** went out of service on June 15 due to a boiler leak, which **increased the expected impact** during the nighttime peak to 2,085 MW, with a mere availability of 1,215 MW against a national demand of 3,100 MW.
This Wednesday is not an isolated incident in Santiago. Reparto Sueño had already staged protests with pots and pans in March 2026, when the neighborhood went nine consecutive days without electricity without any response from the authorities.
Since then, the wave of protests in the city has not stopped: new pot-banging protests shook various neighborhoods on March 23, on May 30 and 31, the Micro 3 and El Salao neighborhoods erupted with burning tires and chants of "Down with the dictatorship!" and "Homeland and Life!", on June 5 neighbors from Micro 2 protested after more than ten days without electricity due to a damaged transformer that has not been repaired, and on June 12 residents of the José Martí Urban Center took to the streets to demand electricity, food, and freedom.
This Wednesday, cacerolazos were reported in Santa Clara and new protests in Havana, indicating a day of widespread discontent across several provinces of the country.
The national landscape reflects a crisis of historical proportions. The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,311 protests across Cuba in May 2026, a figure that is close to the historical record of 1,333 set in December 2025, with 46 of those protests taking place in person on the streets.
An executive from the Electric Company of Santiago admitted on May 31 that in many cases, the company cannot guarantee even two hours of electricity service per day, a confession that summarizes the extent of the energy collapse that is driving Cubans to take to the streets with their pots and pans.
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