Residents of the so-called Loma de la Pela, in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa, held a nighttime pot-banging protest on Thursday against the prolonged blackouts affecting the area, according to a video shared on Facebook by journalist José Raúl Gallego.
The protesters from that neighborhood, in the Barreras area of the aforementioned municipality, marched together to the park to continue the demonstration, which adds to other reports of pot-banging in Havana, where the peripheral neighborhoods have been without electricity for four days.
A person present at the protest informed Gallego that agents from State Security and local leaders were at the location.
His mission: to convince the Cubans to return to their homes. The promise they offered was that “on Saturday they will restore the electricity”.
The scene is repeated with a regularity that has become familiar in Guanabacoa. The municipality has witnessed several protests with pots and pans throughout July: on July 11, residents of Reparto Nalón took to the streets to protest after more than 33 hours without electricity, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of July 11, with chants like "We don't want electricity, we want freedom."
On July 8, residents of La Hata staged another pot-banging protest during a 24-hour blackout, shouting "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!".
The most recent event in the Barreras area dates back to November 2024, when Minas-Barreras experienced a similar protest for the same reasons.
The energy context fueling these protests is devastating. This Thursday, Cuba faced another day of massive blackouts with a deficit of 2,240 MW, equivalent to 69% of the country's total demand, with only 990 MW available against the required 3,200 MW.
The event came just 48 hours after the fifth total collapse of the National Electric System in 2026, which occurred on July 14, marking the tenth in 24 months. In some areas of Havana, power outages have exceeded 35 consecutive hours.
The regime's tactic in response to protests follows a documented pattern: combining promises to restore services—often unfulfilled—with repression.
In June 2026, State Security agents threatened an activist with shooting him in the head if he promoted "kettle knocks" for July 11. Cubalex documented a record 253 protests and 319 repressive events across the island that month.
The promise of electricity for Saturday, made tonight by regime officials to the protesters in Barreras, follows the same script: a temporary concession to dissolve the protest, without any guarantees of fulfillment or a structural solution to an energy crisis that has been deteriorating the daily lives of Cubans for years.
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