Hundreds of people go out to protest in Santiago de Cuba due to lack of electricity and food | VIDEO

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Santiago de Cuba this Sunday, after a difficult weekend due to the long blackouts that affect the entire country and which in that province last up to 13 hours a day.

The protest “was happening until recently” on Avenida de Metera populated area of ​​this city in the east of the island, a 65-year-old resident of Santiago, who lives a few blocks away, told AFP by telephone and asked not to be identified.

LOOK: Cuba will increase retail fuel prices by more than 400% this Friday

“People shouted ‘food and chain’said the man who said he arrived at the rally, the province’s first Communist Party secretary, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia.

When trying to speak, the population, who suffered blackouts lasting 13 and 14 hours in recent days, shouted “We don’t want a tooth! (curse words).”

Later the electricity returned and “two trucks with rice arrived for the warehouses because they didn’t sell a single pound this month”, The man explained about the food that the Cuban government delivers monthly to each inhabitant at a subsidized price.

From mid-afternoon onwards, the networks were filled with images of the protest, which later stopped. Several people confirmed to AFP that cell phone data service in the city had been suspended.

????????➡️The massive protest against the Castro regime in Santiago de Cuba reaches the headquarters of #Communist Party of that city, where protesters surround the building, as seen in photos and videos that come out of the island on social media. pic.twitter.com/9Qs62du4Jx

— PanAm Post Español (@PanAmPost_es) March 17, 2024

Since the beginning of March, Cuba faces a new series of cuts due to maintenance work carried out at the Antonio Güiteras thermoelectric plantthe most important on the island and located in the central province of Matanzas.

This weekend the problem worsened due to fuel shortages in the country. The energy is needed to supply the other thermoelectric plants.

Cuban authorities reported on Saturday that the country was “completely affected” by the blackoutsincluding the capital, without achieving a widespread power cut. “There are regions where there is a blackout throughout the morning and practically throughout the day and practically throughout the country,” Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state television on Saturday night.

In 2023 the island recovered from daily attacks blackouts who lived almost the entire year 2022 and which provoked outbreaks of social protest on the island. This Sunday is the biggest that has occurred since then.

The most critical happened in October of that year, after a widespread blackout on the night of September 27, when Hurricane Ian hit the west of the country.

Cuba’s electrical power generation system consists of eight old thermoelectric plants, in addition to generators and eight floating plants that the government leases to Turkey, also affected by the lack of diesel for their operation.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.