Fire has become the new language of protest in Cuba.
What started as nightly protests against blackouts has escalated into a more radical form of resistance: Cubans are setting fire to the trash piled up in their streets, burning tires, and lighting bonfires at the corners, turning the darkness of the power cuts into bright signals of rebellion.
This Saturday, cacerolazos with 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 media Árbol Invertido described on its social media as “the language of protests in Cuba.”
"Fire has become the language of protests in Cuba, a new means of communication for Cubans to send signals amid the unbearable nights and blackouts. From the depths of a country mired in misery, these luminous signs spread a loud and clear message: 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 seventh and tenth, residents of Marianao burned trash to light their way during nighttime demonstrations. At the same time, they sang the national anthem.
On March 15, protesters set dumpsters on fire in the Micro 9 neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba. The following day, residents of Centro Habana set garbage on fire near the Ministry of Energy amidst an ongoing electrical crisis.
In April, the fires multiplied. On the ninth of that month, the burning of garbage 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 next day, the Piarists issued an urgent statement warning that the temple was about to catch 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 over 200,000 people in Havana were without drinking water.
On May 13, it was the most intense night since July 11, 2021. Residents of Santos Suárez described that “they lit fires on every corner”, with bonfires, pots and pans banging, 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 Central Havana caught fire. On Friday, the streets of Santos Suárez erupted in flames again due to garbage burning during new protests against blackouts.
The fire has a dual dimension in this context. It is a visible act of political defiance, but also a desperate response to the healthcare collapse: overflowing garbage dumps are widespread across 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 infections 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, chikungunya transmission was still active.
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,311 protests, complaints, and critical expressions during May 2026, the highest known monthly figure, preceded by 1,133 in April. This Saturday, the Electric Union reported a mere availability of 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 the blackouts represent a new and concerning form of challenge: as incendiary as the shouts of "Freedom" and "Down with the Dictatorship" that accompany them, and much harder to ignore.
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