This month another wave of protests has been triggered in the country. And despite the arrests and threats from the government, the citizens’ demands will continue, and more slogans will appear daily, since there are new reasons to shout.
By Camila Rodríguez (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – “Hello, they took my son. I don’t know what to do.” This is one of the messages that regularly reach the WhatsApp of Justicia 11J, a program of Research and Advocacy Initiative A.C., a Civil Society Organization specialized in human rights. It is a message that, with very few words, reflects the fear and desperation in the face of the arbitrary detentions that occur in Cuba in connection with peaceful demonstrations in public spaces.
This March, another wave of protests has been unleashed in the country. The month has not yet ended, and at least 40 protests of different magnitude and type of action have already taken place. Twenty-four municipalities in 12 provinces have seen or heard the social, economic, and political discontent of citizens who no longer can or want to put up with the dictatorship.
The protests in Bayamo (Granma), Carreta del Morro, in the District and El Cobre (Santiago de Cuba) and Santa Marta (Matanzas), on March 17 and 18, are just the mediatized peaks of protest expressions since weeks ago that have also left a toll in victims. People have shouted “Food and medicine”, “We are hungry”, that the electric power service be restored — again in crisis —, and also, they have asked for an end to the root of the evil. Slogans of “Freedom”, “Homeland and Life”, “Down with the dictatorship”, “Down with communism” and “Down with Diaz-Canel” have been heard.
In contrast to the numerous reports of detentions received by Justicia 11J from family members of protesters from the July 2021 social outburst and the subsequent 2022 protest peaks, there have been few individua
