Residents of Reparto Nalón in Guanabacoa staged a strong pot-banging protest this Saturday after enduring more than 33 consecutive hours without electricity, according to a report by independent journalist Magdiel Jorge Castro shared on Instagram.
The protest coincides with the fifth anniversary of July 11, 2021, the largest social uprising in Cuba since 1959, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets in over 40 cities demanding freedom, food, and an end to blackouts.
The cacerolazo occurs in the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis. On July 10, at 4:30 PM, the National Electric System (SEN) experienced its fourth total collapse of the year, the eighth in 24 months, and the collapse of the western microsystem complicated the restoration of service during the anniversary night.
Guanabacoa has been experiencing weeks of rising tension. On July 8, residents of shelters and military-use buildings in La Hata, within the same municipality, held a pot-banging protest during a 24-hour blackout, shouting "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!".
On that same day, July 8th, residents of Cayo Hueso, in Central Havana, took to the streets with the slogan "We want freedom, not electricity!", even after power had been restored in the area. In Alamar, other residents burned trash to block roads shouting "Down with the dictatorship!".
Protests have escalated from demands for basic services to direct calls for political change. In June 2026 alone, there were 107 street protests recorded in Cuba, an absolute historical record, nearly double the previous record of 54 in March, with 82 of them concentrated in Havana.
Power outages in the capital reached peaks of up to 35 hours daily in July; in Matanzas, cuts lasted for 87 consecutive hours, and in Granma for 72. In light of the severity of the crisis, Díaz-Canel publicly called for a "better organization of the power outages", a statement that sparked widespread outrage, while Prime Minister Marrero attributed the collapse to the U.S. embargo.
Five years after the 11J protests of 2021, 1,281 political prisoners remain imprisoned in Cuba, with 338 of them incarcerated specifically for participating in those protests. The pardons issued in April 2026 explicitly excluded them, according to a testimony collected this Saturday from one of the 11J demonstrators: “I went out to demand freedom, and it changed my entire life.”
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