Hundreds protest in Cuba for blackout after passage of Ian

Groups of Cubans protested Friday night in the streets of Havana for the second night, denouncing delays in the full restoration of electricity three days after Hurricane Ian left the entire country without service.

A foreign monitoring group reported that Cuba’s internet service was disrupted for the second time in two days, saying it appeared to be unrelated to storm problems but rather an attempt to prevent information about the demonstrations from spreading. .

The journalists of Associated Press people were seen demonstrating in at least five parts of the city or its outskirts, including the districts of Barreras and La Gallega, where residents blocked streets with burnt tires and garbage.

Masiel Pereira, a housewife, said that “the only thing I ask is that my children be turned on.” A neighbor, Yunior Velásquez, lamented that “all the food is about to be lost” because there was no light for the refrigerators.

On Thursday night, people protested at two points in the Cerro municipality, in Havana. That area was mostly quiet on Friday with the restoration of service, although people went out to the important Villa Blanca avenue chanting “We want light!”, while banging pots with spoons. The police blocked access to the street, but there were no clashes.

The country of 11 million people was plunged into darkness Tuesday night, just hours after Ian roared over western Cuba and triggered power system problems that eventually spread across the island.

Electricity was restored in some parts of the country the next day, but other areas were left without service, including in the capital.

The government did not say what percentage of the general population remained without power on Friday, but power authorities said only 10% of Havana’s 2 million residents had electricity as of Thursday night.

Internet and cell phone service were also down Thursday. Internet service returned Friday morning, at least in some areas, but it was cut off again overnight, groups monitoring Internet access said.

Alp Toker, director of London-based Netblocks, said the internet blackout on Thursday and Friday looked different from a blackout that occurred shortly after Ian’s impact.

“Internet service has been interrupted once again in Cuba, at approximately the same time as yesterday (Thursday),” Toker said in an email to AP Friday night. “The timing of the cuts provides another indication that this is a move to suppress coverage of the protests.”

Doug Madory, director of internet analytics at Kentik Inc., a network intelligence company, earlier described Thursday’s event as a “total internet blackout.”

Repeated blackouts in Cuba’s already fragile power grid were among the causes of the island’s largest social protests in decades in July 2021. Thousands of people took to the streets, tired of power outages and shortages of goods. exacerbated by the pandemic.

Hundreds were arrested and prosecuted, drawing harsh criticism of the administration of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Experts said the total blackout showed the vulnerability of Cuba’s power grid and warned that it will take time and resources, things the country does not have, to fix the problem.

Cuba’s electrical system “was already in a critical and immunocompromised state as a result of the deterioration of the thermoelectric plants. The patient is now on life support,” said Jorge Piñon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean program at the Center for International Energy and Environment Policy at the University of Texas.

Cuba has 13 power generation plants, eight of which are traditional thermoelectric plants and five floating plants leased from Turkey since 2019. There is also a group of small plants distributed throughout the country since an energy reform in 2006.

But the plants are poorly maintained, a phenomenon the government blamed on lack of funds and US sanctions. Complications in obtaining fuel are also a problem.

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