Neighbors from the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución in Havana staged a pot-banging protest this Tuesday, reported in real-time by CubaNet Noticias and independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada through their Facebook accounts.
The protest carries an exceptional symbolic weight: this municipality is home to the Palace of the Revolution, the seat of the Cuban government, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and the main monuments of political power on the island.
The clamor of pots and pans arises in the midst of a dual crisis that simultaneously affects the people of Havana. On one hand, the Electric Union forecasted a mere availability of 933 MW this Tuesday against a demand of 3,250 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,317 MW and estimated impacts of up to 2,347 MW.
On the other hand, a breakdown at the Canasí collection center has left seven municipalities in the capital without manufactured gas since Monday, including Plaza de la Revolución, Habana Vieja, Centro Habana, Cerro, 10 de Octubre, Playa, and Marianao.
The state-owned company CUPET had promised to restore the supply "by the morning of Tuesday, August 11," but that promise was not fulfilled before the neighbors came out to bang their pots and pans.
The protest with pots and pans this Tuesday is not an isolated incident, but rather the most direct escalation to the political heart of the capital within a wave of protests that has been growing in intensity and proximity to power for months.
In March, residents of Nuevo Vedado protested with pots and pans just a few blocks from the Palace of the Revolution, and days later the pot-and-pan protests reached in front of the PCC Central Committee in El Vedado during blackouts lasting over 30 hours.
In June, the Boyeros and Tulipán area, within the same municipality, protested for several days due to power outages. On July 17, a new protest with pots and pans shook El Vedado after more than 30 hours without electricity.
At the end of July, residents of El Fanguito blocked Avenida 23 after more than 48 hours without electricity, water, or gas, also within the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.
The energy collapse fueling these protests is systemic. The National Electric System experienced its seventh total blackout of the year on August 3, and power outages have exceeded 87 hours in Matanzas and over 20 hours daily in circuits of Havana.
The regime has insisted on attributing the collapse to the U.S. embargo, but the population responds with pots and pans, and on several occasions, with chants that go beyond demands for basic services: "We want freedom," protesters have shouted in various locations across the capital in recent months.
The power outage forecast for this week does not signal relief, and the unfulfilled promise of manufactured gas leaves seven municipalities in Havana without one of their most essential services.
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