The night of this Thursday was once again filled with the sound of pots and pans in Santiago de Cuba.
The independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada shared a video of the pot-banging protests in the Municipal District of the eastern city, featuring a recording taken in complete darkness, providing direct evidence of the blackout affecting the area at that moment.
In a second post of the day, Mayeta Labrada reported that as night fell, pots and pans began to be heard in the 18-story buildings of Santiago de Cuba, extending the protest to another area of the city, just a few meters from the headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba in the eastern province.
The protests are not an isolated event. Santiago has been experiencing months of continuous demonstrations due to the energy crisis: on June 18, simultaneous pot-banging protests shook all of its neighborhoods—Sueño, Santa Bárbara, Antonio Maceo, Veguita de Galo, Mármol, Altamira, and Chicharrones; on June 19, the protests reached just a few blocks from the provincial headquarters of the Communist Party; and on June 29, the regime deployed armed black berets with rifles in the Chicharrones neighborhood to intimidate the demonstrators.
Also this Thursday, the wave of protests spread across the entire island. In Havana, residents of La Lisa stood in front of the PCC headquarters after more than 50 consecutive hours without electricity or water, while casseroles clanging on Primelles Street in El Cerro triggered a heavy police operation with vehicles deployed in the area.
Also during the day, dozens of residents from Regla took to the streets after more than 24 hours without electricity, chanting "We want to sleep with light; we want to live like human beings."
Resident Nelson Vázquez reported that the authorities restored the service for just ten minutes —the exact time for the police to arrive— and then cut it off again, accumulating 48 hours without supply.
Behind every pot-banging protest lies a structural crisis of historical proportions. The electricity generation deficit reached a record of 2,208 MW on June 25, leaving nearly 70% of the country without simultaneous electricity.
Of the 16 thermoelectric units in Cuba, nine are out of service, including the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant, the largest on the island.
In Santiago, the Electric Company reorganized the power outages into nine blocks starting June 16, leaving each area with only one or two hours of electricity per day; an executive from the company admitted on June 1 that they couldn't guarantee even that.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,133 protests in April 2026 alone, a 29.5% increase compared to the previous year, of which 153 were directly related to the lack of electricity and water.
The regime has responded with repression —black berets, police operations, internet blackouts—but without providing concrete solutions to the energy crisis.
The Energy Minister acknowledged that Cuba operated without fuel reserves for months and anticipated that 2026 would be "a difficult year."
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