A wave of massive pot-banging protests shook Santiago de Cuba on Thursday night, with simultaneous demonstrations taking place in all neighborhoods of the city, according to real-time reports from independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on his Facebook account.
Mayeta, who has covered weeks of protests in the province, named the city with a title that encapsulates the magnitude of what has occurred: "SANTIAGO DE CUBA I JUST NAMED 'THE CASSEROLE CITY'‼".
The journalist also warned of a forceful response from the regime: "Militarized Morro Road and 9th Street in Santiago de Cuba‼," he wrote, accompanying the message with a nighttime video showing heavy vehicles deployed on the public road.
From another part of the city, the journalist José L. Tan Estrada confirmed the gatherings: "I have reports that neighbors are banging pots on 9th Street and gathering at the park on El Morro Road, in Santiago de Cuba, as a sign of protest," he published, adding that "there is a police presence in the area as the number of citizens joining the protest increases."
The immediate trigger is the electric crisis that is overwhelming Santiago de Cuba: on June 16, the Electric Company reorganized the power outages into nine blocks, leaving each area with only one or two hours of electricity per day, resulting in outages of up to 22 consecutive hours.
The situation worsened on June 15 when the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant went offline due to a boiler leak — its 15th breakdown of the year — raising the projected impact for the nighttime peak to 2,085 MW compared to a availability of only 995-1,215 MW and a national demand of 3,100 MW.
The protests this Thursday are not an isolated event, but the culmination of a sustained wave. On Wednesday, Reparto Sueño already featured potbanging that spread to Santa Bárbara, Reparto Antonio Maceo, Calle 17 in Veguita de Galo, Reparto Mármol, and Altamira.
On June 12, residents of the José Martí Urban Center took to the streets to demand electricity, food, and freedom; on June 5, neighbors in Micro 2 protested with pot banging after more than ten days without electricity; and on May 30 and 31, the neighborhoods of Micro 3 and El Salao erupted with tire burning and slogans of "Down with the dictatorship!" and "Homeland and Life!".
The demonstrations this Thursday take place a day after the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the PCC, held on Wednesday, where the regime discussed over 20 economic reforms while the population protested in the streets of several provinces.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts reported 1,311 protests throughout Cuba in May 2026, a figure close to the historical record of 1,333 recorded in December 2025, marking a 42% increase in direct challenges to the police state compared to April.
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