Related videos:
At least 24 people were arrested on Tuesday night on Luyanó Boulevard, in the Diez de Octubre municipality, after dozens of residents came out to protest against the prolonged blackouts and lack of water, according to an investigation by Diario de Cuba.
All those detained are men and of Afro-descendant heritage, according to a source from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit in Aguilera who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The protesters gathered in front of the Hijas de Galicia maternity hospital, where they held pot-banging demonstrations, burned trash, and blocked traffic during a general blackout caused by the failure of the National Electric System (SEN). A police caravan stormed the area and proceeded with the arrests.
The neighborhood had been without electricity for almost two days and without water supply for about ten when the protest broke out.
"Before the fall of the SEN, we had already endured more than 40 hours without electricity and ten days without a drop of water, without tankers or anything. It's every man for himself. We cannot continue living like this, which is why we protest and bang pots and pans until our demands are addressed," stated a resident identified as Zenia.
The wave of arrests has overwhelmed the capacity of the Aguilera police unit. An internal source revealed that the station has accumulated more than 30 detainees linked to the recent protests, which has forced the use of cells designated for women and common areas of the holding cells.
"We already have more than 30 detainees in the unit, which is a critical figure," stated the official.
For this Thursday, the urgent transfer of 14 of those detainees to the Valle Grande prison was scheduled. "Aguilera cannot accommodate another detainee. We are overwhelmed with this issue of the protests," added the same source.
Luyanó joins a growing list of neighborhoods in Havana where protests have been met with massive operations. In recent days, residents of Jaimanitas, La Hata, and Alamar also staged protests and reported police cordons and internet outages.
Among the documented cases is that of Elías Heli González Palma, a resident of Sevillano, who remains in provisional detention accused of public disorder for participating in protests from inside his own home.
The protests in Luyanó occur five years after July 11, 2021, when the neighborhood was one of the emblematic sites of the largest social uprising in decades.
The current trigger is the worst energy crisis in recent Cuban history: the SEN completely collapsed on July 6, marking its seventh total blackout in 18 months, leaving over 9.6 million people without electricity.
Repression is escalating alongside the protests. Justicia 11J documented at least 220 public demonstrations during June, while the Cuban Conflict Observatory registered 107 street protests that month, a historical record, with 82 concentrated in Havana.
According to data from Infobae, Cuba set a record this Thursday with 1,306 political prisoners, including 40 minors, with 16 of them held in adult prisons.
Filed under: