Thousands of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday in Havana and other parts of the island to protest shortages, high food prices and power cuts amid the health crisis caused by the coronavirus and what they consider the lack of response from the authorities. Today they woke up without any type of mobile internet service.
These are the largest protests in decades against the Cuban government, which described them as a campaign promoted on social media by its detractors outside the island.
The protests began with a group of protesters who arrived in the afternoon on the street of San Lázaro in the capital, including many young people, who cut off the circulation of vehicles and headed towards Havana’s Malecón, reported journalists from The Associated Press in the the place of the scene.
“Freedom”, “Enough” and “Join” chanted as they were closely followed by the police. A motorcyclist pulled out an American flag that was taken from him by others.
“We are tired of the queues, of the shortage. That’s why I’m here, ”a man in his 40s told the AP and that he did not want to identify himself for fear of being arrested later.
The protesters numbered a few thousand in the vicinity of Avenida de Galeano, where there were even runs and the launching of gases by the police who, however, failed to dissuade the people who continued walking, jumping and shouting.
The protesters were applauded from many balconies on that central artery of the Centro Habana neighborhood and onlookers also joined in. Despite the fact that many people tried to take out their cell phones and broadcast live, the Internet service was cut off by the authorities throughout the entire Sunday afternoon.
Social networks were lit with comments, false rumors and in some cases user accounts identified from abroad with calls for people to go out on the streets.
During the march through the Centro Habana neighborhood, a group of people lifted cobblestones from the floor and threw them at police cars. The agents violently arrested protesters until they were dispersed.
In parallel, some 300 people related to the government arrived with a large Cuban flag in that area of Central Havana shouting slogans in favor of the late President Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution.
Demonstrations were also held in other parts of the island, such as in the small town of San Antonio de los Baños, where a group of people protested over power cuts.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel came to that town and entered the homes of people who spontaneously questioned him.
“As if pandemic outbreaks had not existed throughout the world, the Cuban-American mafia, paying very well, on social networks to influencers and youtubers, has created a whole campaign … and has called for demonstrations throughout the country ”Díaz-Canel told reporters in San Antonio de los Baños.
The AP verified at least a score of arrests of people who were taken in police cars or individuals with plainclothes agents.
“The people came out to express themselves freely and they are repressing and beating,” priest Jorge Luis Gil, standing on one of the corners of Centro Habana, told the AP.
Cuba is going through the worst economic crisis in decades that adds to a resurgence of the coronavirus and suffers the consequences of the United States sanctions that seek to pressure a change in the political model on the island.
In the Bolivian region of Santa Cruz, about a hundred Cuban residents protested through the streets until they reached the Cuban consulate to ask for freedom.
With Cuban flags at the doors of the consulate, the residents asked for free elections and for “Diaz-Canel to leave.”
Santa Cruz is considered a critical region for leftist president Luis Arce, political heir to Evo Morales, who ruled for nearly 14 years. Both are very close to the Cuban authorities.
Acting Undersecretary of the US State Department’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julie Chung, defended the protests.
“Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express their concern about the increase in COVID cases / deaths and the shortage of medicines. We commend the many efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need, ”the US official wrote on her Twitter account.
In recent weeks, a dramatic outbreak in the province of Matanzas, in the center of the country, generated a health collapse due to lack of medicines and supplies and many Cubans residing in the United States called for donations to be sent to Cuba, which the government did not authorize while waiting. that they be done through official channels.
Happening in Cuba today #cubasos #cuba pic.twitter.com/YmaXUdtj5P
— PRinforma (@PRinforma) July 12, 2021
