Miguel Díaz-Canel responded this week to the pot-banging protests shaking Cuba with a phrase that summarizes the regime's strategy in the face of the worst energy crisis in the island's history: instead of taking responsibility, he redirected the public discontent towards the United States.
"The people bang their pots, some with more displeasure than others. I say: well, let them bang their pots at the neighbors to the north, who are the ones keeping us in this blackout," he declared in an interview with the weekly CLARIDAD from Puerto Rico, published on July 3.
The interview was conducted at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana. CLARIDAD is an independentist weekly from Puerto Rico founded in 1959 and historically aligned with the Castro regime, which explains the privileged access to the leader and the condescending tone of the questions.
Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged in the conversation the magnitude of the collapse the population is experiencing: "There is a shortage of transportation, food, and medicine here; there are prolonged blackouts lasting more than twenty hours. This causes dissatisfaction; no one can be happy, the people are suffering." However, he attributed the entirety of the crisis to the U.S. embargo and flatly dismissed the regime's poor management as a cause.
"I can tell you that the majority of our people know what the cause of our problems is, and they understand that more than a lack of management, as the spokespeople of imperialism try to blame us for... the main obstacle to our development is the prolonged blockade and the intensification of that blockade," he asserted.
The statement about the pots and pans came when the journalist from CLARIDAD asked him why there has not been a social outbreak in Cuba.
Díaz-Canel’s response turns the daily suffering of millions of Cubans into an anti-imperialist argument, ignoring that it is precisely the regime's policies—such as dependence on Venezuelan oil, the deterioration of the electrical system, and decades of mismanagement—that have led the country to collapse.
The electricity generation deficit reached a historic record of 2,208 MW on June 25, leaving about 70% of the country without power. Nine out of the 16 thermoelectric units are out of service, including the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant—the largest on the island—which suffered its 17th breakdown in 2026 on the same day the interview was published. ECLAC projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP by 6.5% in 2026, the worst in Latin America.
While Díaz-Canel spoke to a sympathetic media outlet, Cubans in Zamora, Marianao, protested after more than 24 hours without electricity, shouting "Freedom!". A resident of the neighborhood, Zea Gisselle, summed it up accurately: "They have fuel to patrol the neighborhood and suppress us, but not to keep the country functioning with guaranteed basic services."
The regime responded to the pot-banging protests with militarization: armed black berets with long rifles, police operations, and internet shutdowns. In June, Cubalex documented at least 38 arrests, including six minors. The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,311 protests in May 2026 alone, the highest known monthly figure, following 1,133 in April.
Santiago de Cuba also echoed with saucepan banging in the neighborhoods of Municipal, Santa Úrsula, Hoyo de Chicharrones, and Portuondo, while residents of El Vedado, El Cerro, and Regla took to the streets chanting: "We want to sleep with light; we want to live like people."
The leader concluded the interview with his usual rhetoric of resilience: "I am convinced that we will overcome this, that we will move forward, that we will prevail, and that we will not give up. We will not give up."
A promise that, for millions of Cubans who have gone months without electricity, water, or food, sounds increasingly hollow.
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