Neighbors on Consulado and Refugio Streets in the municipality of Centro Habana staged a pot-banging protest this Sunday and set fire in the street after enduring several consecutive days without electricity. Journalist Mario J. Pentón captured the moment in a video posted on Facebook, showing the arrival of the police at the scene and the reaction of the protesters.
Upon seeing the agents, the neighbors did not back down. The screams heard in the recording encapsulate the accumulated desperation: "What are they here for? To hit us?" "Dogs!... Get out of here!" The scene reflects a level of direct confrontation with law enforcement that has become increasingly common in the Cuban capital.
The protest at the Consulate and Refuge is not an isolated event. The day before, residents of the Lawton neighborhood, in the Diez de Octubre municipality, held another pot-banging protest with bonfires in the street demanding "We want light!" and "Freedom!". On Friday the 17th, residents of Dolores Street, also in Lawton, burned trash in the public street as a sign of protest. And on Thursday, another pot-banging protest shook El Vedado after 30 hours without electricity.
Centro Habana, and particularly the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, has become one of the most active epicenters of popular protest. On July 8, a crowd gathered in front of the Lázaro Peña theater bearing slogans such as “Freedom!”... “We want freedom, not electricity”. On June 30, residents of Salud street held a pot-banging protest in broad daylight after more than 28 hours without electricity, gas, or water. The corner of Consulado and Ánimas —a short distance from this Sunday’s gathering— was already the scene on July 3 of the violent arrest of activist Leonardo Romero Negrín during another pot-banging protest.
Behind every protest lies an energy crisis of historic proportions. In July 2026, the Nationwide Electric System experienced three total blackouts in just eight days: on the 6th, the 10th, and the 14th of July, the latter being the fifth total blackout of the year. The energy deficit reached a historic record of 2,341 MW in July, leaving approximately 73% of the Cuban population without electricity. In some municipalities of Matanzas, the outages have exceeded 87 consecutive hours.
The structural cause is a combination of factors that the regime has been unable—or unwilling—to resolve. The thermoelectric infrastructure has lacked proper maintenance for decades. The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, the largest in the country, has disconnected from the system 17 times so far in 2026. Additionally, the supply of Venezuelan oil, on which Cuba relied to cover the gap between its production of 40,000 barrels daily and its need of between 90,000 and 110,000, ceased in January of this year.
The regime's response to the wave of protests has followed a familiar pattern: police deployment, arrests, and internet shutdowns. The organization Cubalex documented at least 38 arrests related to the protests in the preceding months. Neighbors and activists also report that the government restores electricity during demonstrations as a tactic to defuse them. Meanwhile, President Miguel Díaz-Canel did not announce structural solutions but instead publicly called for "better organization of blackouts," while the government blamed the United States for the crisis.
In June 2026, 107 street protests were recorded in Cuba, the highest monthly figure to date, of which 82 took place in Havana. The slogans have expanded from demands for electricity to include calls for freedom and political change. Among the comments circulating on social media following the video from Pentón, several users expressed their support for the protesters and pointed out that the situation in the capital is unsustainable.
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