Residents of the neighborhood El Henequén, in the municipality of Mariel, province of Artemisa, took to the streets to protest on Friday night after enduring more than four consecutive days without electricity, according to report by Martí Noticias based on videos circulated on social media.
A resident of the area, whose identity is kept confidential, described the situation bluntly: "The Cuban people can no longer endure. After four days without electricity, the people in my neighborhood took to the streets as their only form of defense. Cubans only have this way to defend themselves, by calling for protest."
The same neighbor explained that El Henequén is a small fishing village that has historically been overlooked by the authorities: "The schools, homes, and even the people are in very poor living conditions, and this was the only way the community found to come together and fight to be heard."
The protest in Artemisa was not an isolated incident. In the capital, residents of the Martín Pérez neighborhood in San Miguel del Padrón blocked the Vía Blanca on Friday night with pots and pans and barricades, in opposition to the prolonged power outages and the widespread deterioration of living conditions.
Havana has now seen several consecutive nights of protests, spreading to Centro Habana, Jaimanitas, Regla, Alamar, La Victoria, and Marianao, among other neighborhoods.
The activist Mario Alberto Hernández Leyva informed Radio Martí that a pot-banging protest occurred on 128 B Street, in Los Pocitos, Marianao, around eight in the morning on Friday, because the area had been without electricity since the previous day.
Protests are occurring in the context of the worst electrical crisis in Cuba's history, which has dramatically intensified in July 2026.
On July 10, the National Electroenergetic System experienced its fourth total blackout of the year —the eighth in 24 months— triggered by a failure in the 220 kV line between Santa Clara and Sancti Spíritus. Two days prior, the generation deficit had reached a historic record of 2,341 MW, with only 935 MW available against a demand of around 3,200 MW.
In some areas of the country, such as Matanzas, power outages have lasted up to 87 consecutive hours. In Havana, blackouts average 15 hours a day.
Meanwhile, the regime has chosen denial and repression. Minister Vinicio Marrero attributed the blackout on July 10 to the U.S. embargo, avoiding any responsibility for the structural collapse of the energy system. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, simply stated: “No one surrenders here”.
The government has responded to the protests with police deployments, arrests, and internet shutdowns, in an especially tense context: Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the historic protests of July 11, 2021.
For this Sunday, the Electric Union forecasted a supply of only 1,278 MW against a maximum demand of 3,200 MW, resulting in an expected deficit of 1,922 MW —equivalent to 60% of the energy needed— and a projected impact of 61% on total demand during peak hours.
Filed under: