Residents of Nuevo Vedado in Havana banged pots and pans Thursday night just blocks from the Communist Party of Cuba headquarters, amid ongoing blackouts. Activist Magdiel Jorge Castro shared a video of the protest on Facebook. State-run Unión Eléctrica reported more than half of Cuba without power during peak hours.
The pot-banging protest took place Thursday night during one of the long blackouts burdening Cubans daily. A video shared by activist Magdiel Jorge Castro on Facebook shows darkened buildings, with some lights from mobile phones, generators, or solar panels.
"I hope Díaz-Canel listens carefully to the sound of tonight’s protest," Castro wrote alongside the footage.
State-run Unión Eléctrica (UNE) stated on its Facebook page that more than half of Cuba was without power simultaneously during Thursday's peak hours. Public comments describe situations like 30 straight hours without electricity, three hours in 24, or two hours per day.
On the same day, Miguel Díaz-Canel inaugurated the fifth Patria Colloquium, a gathering of foreign pro-regime spokespeople and activists held since 2022. One commenter questioned the lack of "power deficit" during a regime rally at the corner of 12th and 23rd streets in Vedado, where Díaz-Canel acknowledged Cuba "absolutely lacks fuel for almost everything."
In a related protest case, opposition couple Alexeis Serrano Águila and Delis Frometa Suárez have been jailed in Palma Soriano since April 13, facing contempt charges punishable by up to three years for challenging a 16,000-peso fine for street vending on April 11, according to legal group Cubalex.
