Residents of Reparto Nalón, in Guanabacoa, staged a powerful 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 more than 40 cities demanding freedom, food, and an end to blackouts.
The cacerolazo occurs amid an unprecedented energy crisis. On July 10, at 4:30 PM, the National Electric System (SEN) suffered 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 increasing 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 chanting "Down with the dictatorship!".
Protests have escalated from demands for basic services to direct calls for political change. In June 2026 alone, 107 street protests were recorded in Cuba, setting an all-time 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, the cuts lasted for 87 consecutive hours, and in Granma for 72. In light of the magnitude of the crisis, Díaz-Canel publicly called for "better organization of the outages", a statement that sparked widespread outrage, while Prime Minister Marrero attributed the collapse to the U.S. embargo.
Five years after the 11J of 2021, 1,281 political prisoners remain incarcerated in Cuba, 338 of whom were directly imprisoned for participating in those protests. The pardon decreed in April 2026 explicitly excluded them, according to a testimony collected this Saturday from one of the 11J demonstrators: "I went out to ask for freedom and it changed my whole life."
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