Residents of Havana took to the streets of several neighborhoods in the capital city on Tuesday night for the second day in a row to protest against the communist Castro regime amid a new, over 30-hour-long blackout.
Over the past two days, Cubans living in Havana have been enduring yet another over 30-hour-long blackout as the ailing communist regime finds itself unable to consistently provide power to the Cuban capital city. Cuban-focused outlets reported that residents of the Havana neighborhoods of Bahía, Marianao, Diez de Octubre, Nuevo Vedado, Luyanó, and others banged pots, set up campfires, and burned piles of trash that the ailing ruling regime has failed to properly dispose of during Tuesday night’s protests.
Cuban dissidents with internet access successfully managed to publish footage of the protests on social media and share it with outlets. Cubanet published footage of a cacerolazo (“pot-banging”) protest in Diez de Octubre — a neighborhood described by the outlet as a location that has become a central spot for peaceful protests against the Castro regime in recent months. In another piece of footage, shared by Cuban dissident Eliécer Ávila and published by Cubanet, shows fires burning along the side of a road while dozens of people protest during the blackout.
Cuban activist Orlando Ramírez spoke with Martí Noticias on Tuesday and described the situation as “chaotic.” Ramírez resides in Santo Suárez, a neighborhood that lost power on Monday afternoon and only had power for a brief 14-minute period before it went out again. His area also lacks running water, as there is not enough pressure to pump water through the pipelines of his neighborhood and, without power, no one can operate any pumps to move water upwards into tanks. Having access to fuel-powered generators is no guarantee to overcome the blackout, Ramírez pointed out, as generators are not suited to provide power to the old refrigerators that are commonplace in Cuba — in addition to soaring fuel costs across the island, which make running generators an expensive endeavor.
Hellbound and Down 