Power Outages and Hunger Fuel Havana's Unyielding Protests Against the Regime

In defiance of police crackdowns, families in Havana took to the streets again on Tuesday night amid a blackout that has lasted over 72 hours in some provinces. Armed with pots, the national anthem, and chants of "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!", they voiced their dissent against the regime.

The latest trigger was the seventh complete collapse of the National Electric System in just 18 months, marking the third such incident in 2026. The outage began on Monday after the No. 6 unit of the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey went offline, leaving the country with only 935 to 1,000 megawatts available to meet a demand of 3,100 MW, resulting in a shortfall exceeding 2,200 MW.

Protests Erupt in Various Neighborhoods

Demonstrations were reported in Guanabacoa, Jaimanitas, Central Havana, Arroyo Arenas, and Alamar. Residents in zones 9 and 11 of the Alamar district staged a cacerolazo, banging pots and burning trash in the street around 10:00 PM to block traffic.

In La Hata, Guanabacoa, residents of shelters and military-used buildings held another pot-banging protest. The stark inequality was evident: military blocks boasted tiles, gardens, and lighting, while relocated families lived on cracked cement floors.

Voices of Defiance

When police arrived to disperse the protesters, they responded by banging their pots even louder, signaling defiance. Videos circulating on social media captured voices declaring, "We are not afraid! We are not afraid!" and others shouting, "Down with the dictatorship, down with the communist regime, we need freedom, they're killing us."

Repression and Arrests

Reports of arrests and targeted internet blackouts in the capital's neighborhoods emerged, reflecting the regime's systematic approach to quelling protests since they began to escalate. This wave of protests is the most sustained since July 11, 2021. The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 107 street protests in Cuba in June 2026, nearly doubling the previous record of 54 in March, with 82 of these occurring in Havana.

Cubalex documented at least 38 arrests linked to the June pot-banging protests, including six minors. Rapper Matos MC K-LIBRE was transferred to Valle Grande prison, and the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances gave the regime until July 14 to report on his case.

Cuban Anger Unleashed

Days before these protests, Miguel Díaz-Canel sparked outrage by suggesting in an interview with the Puerto Rican weekly CLARIDAD that Cubans should "bang their pots at their northern neighbors," blaming them for the blackouts. However, the Cuban people's response was to take to the streets with renewed vigor. In the same interview, Díaz-Canel admitted, "There's a shortage of transport, food, medicine here, and there are prolonged blackouts lasting over twenty hours. This causes dissatisfaction; no one can be happy, the people are suffering."

The public outrage at Díaz-Canel's remarks made it clear that the pots were not directed at Washington but at Havana.

On July 6, the U.S. Embassy in Havana issued its seventh security alert of the year due to the energy crisis, advising its citizens to prepare for prolonged outages. Meanwhile, blackouts reached 87 consecutive hours in Matanzas, 72 in Granma, and up to 35 hours daily in the capital.