14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2024 — With the slogans of “Freedom!”, “No more violence” and singing the national anthem La Bayamesa, Cubans took to the streets this weekend in several provinces to demand food and an end to the blackouts. In complete darkness and to the sound of people banging on pots and pans, the residents of the town of Santa Marta, in Matanzas, were the last to join the intense day of protests on Sunday night , mostly in eastern Cuba.
The general unrest was sparked by the lack of food and the electricity cuts of more than 12 hours, and in addition to the people of Matanzas, other residents took to the streets in El Cobre and the main city in Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo, in Granma, in Cacocum, on Saturday in Holguín. The protests were responded to this Monday by President Miguel Díaz Canel, who dedicated to it a sequence of messages on the social network X.
#ProtestasCuba #SOSCuba #Bayamo 🎵🎵Al combate corred, bayameses, que la patria os contempla orgullosa🎵🎵 Este #17M también se escuchó el himno cubano en las calles de #Bayamo https://t.co/VY15sFt7UG pic.twitter.com/Ul60Jmq0yq
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) March 18, 2024
“In the last few hours we have seen how terrorists based in the United States, whom we have denounced on repeated occasions, encourage actions against the internal order of the country.” The president’s phrase makes clear the regime’s response to the protests, which he considers carried out by a minimal group of concerned citizens, who are being manipulated by the “enemies of the Revolution.”
Hours earlier, another tweet from Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez pointed to the United States Government as the direct culprit of the “acute economic situation that weighs on the well-being of the Cuban people” and warned its Embassy in Havana that it must “refrain from interfering in Cuban affairs, internal affairs of the country and inciting social disorder.” The US diplomatic headquarters assured, for its part, that it remains aware of the protests and demanded that the Island’s Government respect the rights of the protesters and respond to their demands.
#ProtestasCuba #SOSCuba #Bayamo #Represión Los bayameses pasaron horas en las calles este #17M protestando de manera pacífica pero fueron reprimidos por las fuerzas de seguridad del régimen cubano https://t.co/VY15sFt7UG pic.twitter.com/ZhUkMaeFDe
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) March 18, 2024
Regarding the protests in Santa Marta, one of the cities where the demonstrations on 11 July 2021 were strongest and which suffered intense repression afterwards, not many details are known. A video posted on Facebook shows a group of people walking and banging on pots and pans peacefully on a dark street, with the only light coming from cars and an electric motorcycle.
The protest of the Holguín residents, started last Saturday in Cacocum, made its way with the sound of banging on pots and pans and shouts of “We want electricity.” A gesture that was replicated on Sunday in the city of Santiago de Cuba and in the town of El Cobre. According to reports from the EFE agency, the demonstration in the second most important city on the Island was started by a group of women asking for food for their children. They were joined by dozens of people shouting other slogans such as “Patria y vida” [Homeland and Life], “Freedom”, “Electricity and food” and “We are hungry.”
#ProtestasCuba #Libertad #SOSCuba Santa Marta también en las calles este #17M haciendo sonar las cazuelas #Cárdenas #Matanzas https://t.co/VY15sFt7UG pic.twitter.com/H7T2OPvvNM
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) March 18, 2024
After the crowd grew to a considerable magnitude on the Carretera del Morro, close to several popular and humble neighborhoods such as Vista Hermosa, Van Van, Dessy and Altamira, the newly appointed secretary of the Communist Party of the province, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, got on to the roof of the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party in the capital of Santiago to try to calm the protesters, who
