A Cuban mother from the Havana neighborhood of Lawton reported that she was threatened with police intervention after going for 15 consecutive days to demand solutions regarding the lack of water and electricity. She explained that this situation left her six-year-old daughter with a fever of 39.5 degrees, and she was unable to even provide her with a cold compress.
Sady R. Companioni publicly shared her complaint this Monday through Facebook, where she posted two videos showing the conditions in which her family lives. The images depict heaps of dirty laundry, a pot on a wood-burning stove with just four chicken thighs, and a bathroom in unsanitary conditions. Five people live in the house, aged between six and 73, all suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, as she explained.
“They are killing us. We have gone 15 days without water. I don't even have a way to put a compress on my daughter who has a high fever,” she said in the video.
But beyond the material crisis, the woman reported being intimidated when she tried to demand a response from the authorities.
According to his testimony, he went to the government command center in Lawton to complain about the lack of water and electricity. There, he stated, instead of receiving help, he was threatened with the dispatch of a police patrol, moved from one office to another without getting a response, and finally referred to the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party, where he also found no solution.
"These videos were taken after I came from the command post of the Lawton Government, where in addition to threatening me with a patrol call, they harassed me and sent me to the Party, which also doesn't resolve anything at all," he reported.
The family drama also affected other minors in the household. Companioni reported that an eight-year-old niece was suffering from severe dehydration, while the complete lack of water hindered any improvement in the health condition of both girls.
"My niece is completely dehydrated. My daughter has a fever of thirty-nine and a half," she states in the video.
The complaint was made hours before a new total collapse of the National Electric System (SEN), which occurred on Monday night when the Electric Union confirmed the complete disconnection of service at 10:43 p.m. By Tuesday morning, Havana had only recovered 14% of the electrical supply.
The energy crisis is also exacerbating the water shortage. In the capital, approximately 87% of the pumping system relies on electricity supply, meaning that each prolonged blackout leaves hundreds of thousands of people without service. In July, over half a million residents of Havana reported issues due to the lack of water, while nationally around 2.7 million Cubans are facing difficulties in accessing the resource regularly.
Lawton has become one of the main hotspots of social discontent in Havana this year. On July 18, residents held a pot-banging protest and burned trash to voice their frustration over power outages; a week later, they demonstrated again by banging pots and using fire extinguishers amid power cuts that lasted over 24 hours.
Tension in the neighborhood has been accompanied by reports of repression. On July 29, a woman was run over during a protest, without police taking action against the driver, according to witnesses. Two days later, agents from
The case of Companioni adds to a pattern of retribution against citizens demanding basic services. According to the organization Cubalex, in June 2026 alone, 319 repressive events were documented in Cuba, and almost half of those affected were ordinary citizens, not political activists.
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