Residents of Calabazar and the locality of Las Cañas, in the Havana municipality of Boyeros, took to the streets early this morning to protest after being without electricity for over a week, according to videos shared on the social media platform X by user @luisveramarcos1.
In the images, protesters can be heard chanting "We want light! We want light! We want light!" in the public street, marking a new expression of community fatigue in the face of the collapse of the Cuban electrical system.
At the peak of the protest, a group of locals set fire to the Las Cañas bridge, which connects that area to the village of Calabazar. The regime's response was immediate: according to the same reports, the electricity supply was restored in the area shortly after the fire. Leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba and officials from the Ministry of Interior arrived on the scene to manage the situation and contain the unrest.
The pattern repeats with a regularity that has become hard to ignore: neighbors protest, the regime temporarily restores electricity to calm emotions and deploys police presence, without offering any structural solution. Boyeros has accumulated several episodes of this kind throughout 2026.
In July, residents of Calabazar held two workers of the Electric Union accused of illegally selling the supply intended for the neighborhood.
In September, residents of the Fontanar neighborhood were repressed with approximately ten police patrols and at least two people were detained.
At the end of October, residents blocked Boyeros Avenue with garbage containers after more than three days without electricity.
The energy crisis that serves as the backdrop for these protests reached critical levels in the days prior. On November 13, the National Electric System had barely 900 MW available against a demand of 2,142 MW, with a projected deficit of 1,900 MW for the evening peak hours—equating to covering only 32% of the country's needs.
That same day, a failure at one of the largest power plants caused a total collapse of the grid, leaving around 10 million people without electricity. Early Saturday morning, the system collapsed again.
Power outages bring with them another crisis: the water crisis. An electrical failure at the Cuenca Sur supply source worsened supply issues in eight neighborhoods of Boyeros on Friday.
Aguas de La Habana has warned that 87% of the hydraulic system in the capital relies on electricity, so each extended blackout also results in a water cut. More than 536,000 residents of Havana were affected by water supply issues in November 2026, according to figures attributed to the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources.
Discontent is not limited to Boyeros. According to data from the Cuban Conflict Observatory, in May 2026, 1,311 protests were recorded across Cuba, nearing the monthly record, and 542 in October.
Cubalex documented 766 protests and a 48% increase in repressive events during the first half of the year, reflecting a social tension that the regime manages through sporadic reconnections and police presence, but is unable to defuse.
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