“Freedom!” was one of the cries repeated by Cubans in the protests this Sunday in Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba and Granma.
HAVANA TIMES – With the demand for “electric power and food” and a call for “Freedom!” and “No more violence” 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. In addition to Santa Marta, Cubans took to the streets in El Cobre and the city of Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo, in Granma, and the town of Cacocum in Holguín. The protests were responded to on Monday by President Miguel Diaz Canel, who dedicated a sequence of messages on the social network X.
“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 comment 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.
Regarding the protests in Santa Marta, one of the cities where the d