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A resident of Centro Habana posted a heartbreaking testimony in the Facebook group “Cuban Fighting Mothers 2” that sums up the extreme exhaustion of thousands of Cuban families in the face of endless blackouts: she went out into the street and shouted in front of the headquarters of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC).
Ninfa Bosques wrote her message at 3:13 in the morning, with a fever, headache, and unable to sleep.
Her words reflect an emotional and physical limit that can no longer bear any more waiting.
"Last night I went out and stood in front of the CtC and shouted, but the people supported me, and as soon as they turned on the power, everyone dispersed," he recounted.
The CTC is the official trade union organization of the Cuban regime, which makes the chosen place for shouting a protest act laden with symbolism.
In her post, Ninfa describes an unbearable night: mosquitoes, cockroaches flying in from the street, the heat with no ventilation, and her daughters unable to sleep.
"Here in Central Havana, my girls can't sleep from the mosquitoes, the cockroaches flying in from the street; it's unbearable," she wrote.
The exhaustion it conveys goes beyond the physical.
"I am writing to you from the depths of my headache, exhausted with fever; I can no longer bear it mentally. There's no time for a bottle of water to cool down; I can't sleep," he stated.
His daughters ask him when this will end.
"My girls ask me, 'Mom, how long is this going to last? We're having an unbearable vacation.' They shouldn't have to live through this hell; children were born to be happy," she wrote.
The mother also listed, with a starkness that needs no embellishments, what is lacking in her home: “With a cold emptiness, with no hope of filling it due to the damned blackouts. With irreparable sleep... With a mentally unstable tranquility... Without food... Without milk for our children.”
At the end of the message, Ninfa noted that the fear of repression prevents her from expressing everything she thinks, just like thousands of others.
"I can't keep writing because I believe that if I express what I truly think, I'll end up in prison, and my girls need me. I just want to say that HOMELAND AND LIFE," she concluded.
The testimony comes days after the massive blackout on July 6, when the unexpected shutdown of a unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant left approximately 9.6 million Cubans without electricity, marking the third total collapse of the National Electric Power System in 2026 and the seventh in the last 18 months.
The frustration in Havana, like the rest of the country, is nothing new. On June 30th, residents of Salud Street in Central Havana staged a daylight pot-banging protest after more than 28 hours without electricity, gas, or water.
On Tuesday, residents of the Cayo Hueso neighborhood gathered in front of the Lázaro Peña theater with kitchen pot protests that continued even when the power returned, chanting slogans like "We want freedom, not power!".
According to the Cuban Conflict Observatory, in June 2026, there were 107 protests recorded in Cuba —an absolute historical record, nearly double the previous maximum— of which 82 took place in Havana.
The slogans have escalated from demands for electricity to calls for freedom and regime change, while the Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that power outages exceeded 20-22 hours daily in the capital and warned that 2026 would be a challenging year.
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