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Fire has become the new language of protest in Cuba.
What started as nighttime protests against power outages has escalated into a more radical form of resistance: Cubans are setting fire to the garbage piled up in their streets, burning tires, and lighting bonfires at the corners, transforming the darkness of the blackouts into bright signals of rebellion.
This Saturday, casseroles and tire burning were reported in San Miguel del Padrón and La Güinera, in Havana, marking the latest expression of a wave of protests that the independent outlet Árbol Invertido described on its social media as "the language of protests in Cuba."
"The fire has become the language of protest in Cuba, a new language for Cubans to send signals in the unbearable night and during blackouts. From the depths of a country submerged in misery, these bright signals expand a message loud and clear: a yearning for freedom and a rejection of the communist regime."
The timeline of protests with fire spans the entire island and extends over months. Between March 7 and 10, residents of Marianao burned trash to light their way during nighttime demonstrations. At the same time, they sang the lyrics of the national anthem.
On March 15, protesters set fire to trash bins in the Micro 9 neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba. The following day, residents of Centro Habana set fire to trash near the Ministry of Energy amid an ongoing electricity crisis.
In April, the fires multiplied. On the ninth of that month, the burning of trash on San Nicolás Street charred the main door of the Church of San Judas Tadeo and San Nicolás de Bari. On April 23, the same garbage dump caught fire again, and the firefighters did not respond; the following day, the Escolapian Fathers issued an urgent statement warning that the temple was on the verge of catching fire for the third time.
On April 28, one of the most revealing episodes occurred: residents of the Reina neighborhood deliberately set trash bins on fire to force the arrival of fire trucks and take advantage of their water, at a time when more than 200,000 people in Havana were without drinking water.
On May 13, the night was the most intense since July 11, 2021. Residents of Santos Suárez described that “they have set fire in every corner”, with bonfires, loud banging of pots and pans, and internet outages in at least ten municipalities in Havana, while the generation deficit reached 2,113 MW.
On June 8, the areas around Infanta and San Lázaro in Centro Habana were engulfed in flames. On Friday, the streets of Santos Suárez erupted in flames again due to trash burning during new protests against blackouts.
Fire has a dual dimension in this context. It is a visible political act of defiance, but also a desperate response to the healthcare collapse: overflowing trash bins are proliferating throughout Cuba, creating a real risk of epidemics.
In 2025, the island experienced one of the worst outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya on record, with 65 deaths and 81,909 infected according to the Pan American Health Organization, and more than half of the deceased were minors.
The authorities officially recognized the epidemic in November 2025, and by February 2026, the transmission of chikungunya was still active.
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,311 protests, complaints, and critical expressions during May 2026, the highest monthly figure recorded, following 1,133 in April. This Saturday, the Electric Union reported a supply of only 1,016 MW against a demand of 2,650 MW, with 1,620 MW affected.
For the regime, these bright signals in the darkness of blackouts represent a new and troubling form of challenge: as incendiary as the cries of "Freedom" and "Down with the Dictatorship" that accompany them, and much harder to ignore.
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