“They are going to take me now, they are going to take my phone,” says Marianela Peña Cobas before being captured during a protest over the blackouts.
14ymedio, Havana, March 8, 2026 – Fifteen hours after being detained during the second night of mobilizations over blackouts in Havana, Marianela Peña Cobas was released this Sunday morning with marks of beatings on her right cheek, signs of injuries, swelling, bruises, and bleeding. The incident was reported by her sister, opposition activist Marisol Peña, through social media from the moment she learned of the arrest on Saturday night.
“Good morning everyone. They have now released my sister, not because they are good, but because there are not enough prisons to lock up all the Cubans who loudly demand freedom and the fall of that murderous regime,” opposition activist Marisol Peña wrote in her post. She has lived in the United States since 2023, where she fled after State Security summoned her seven-year-old daughter, Katherin Acosta Peña, for questioning. “Look at the beating they have given a woman for shouting Freedom! One and a thousand times freedom for the people of Cuba, freedom for all political prisoners,” she added in the post, which in just four hours went viral, with nearly 9,000 reactions, more than 2,000 comments, and 2,200 reposts.
The series of posts by the opposition activist about the mobilizations in the capital began shortly before her sister’s detention. In the first message about the pot-banging protests, she wrote that “Havana is in the streets banging pots and shouting ‘Down with communism!’ ” Only six minutes later she reported Marianela’s detention: “They have just arrested my sister and taken her away. Please share.” In her message she posted several audio recordings in which the sound of pots being struck can be heard in the background along with the voice of Marianela Peña Cobas. In the first one, she complains that they have been “five days without electricity and 67 years with hunger and misery.”
In her message she posted audio recordings in which the sound of pots being struck can be heard in the background along with the voice of Marianela Peña Cobas.
Then she says that “it is the entire people” who are protesting and immediately adds: “And now they are going to take me.” A moment later she sends another short audio message in which she says: “They are going to take my phone.” In another recording several seconds of pot-banging can be heard, and at the end Marianela’s voice shouts: “What the hell, let me go!” Finally, in the last message she cries out for “freedom!”
Although the place of the detention was not reported, one internet user indicated that it happened “in Guanabacoa on the street,” one of the districts where mobilizations took place on Saturday. In that area, 14ymedio could confirm simultaneous cacerolazos — pot-banging protests — to denounce the long blackouts affecting the entire country. Demonstrations of the same type were also reported in other parts of Havana, such as Marianao and Cotorro, and in other provinces.
In Guanabacoa, in the Corral Falso area, there was a group shouting “Down with the dictatorship!” as can be seen in the video filmed by this media. Pot-banging could be heard on several streets, some louder than others. Many of those banging pots were children, undoubtedly with the consent of their parents.
The detention occurred in the context of the mobilizations that began Friday night in western Cuba, especially in Havana. After the most recent collapse of the national electrical system four days ago, and given the difficulty of restoring it due to the lack of fuel, the noise of pots and pans has once again filled the darkness as a sign of protest. “Abusers! How long is this going to last?” “Turn the power on!” “Díaz-Canel singao*!” and “Down with communism!” were some of the shouts heard Friday night.
“Abusers! How long is this going to last? “Turn the power on!” “Díaz-Canel bastard!”, and “Down with communism!” were some of the shouts.
Accustomed to blackouts lasting more than 20 hours, this is the first time this year that simultaneous pot-banging protests have taken place in numerous municipalities. Last Wednesday, the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest in the country, triggered a chain reaction that left two-thirds of the country without electricity, from Camagüey to Pinar del Río.
As for the violence used against Marianela Peña Cobas, it occurred on International Women’s Day, a date that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel used to speak about “the achievements won” by women.
Through a thread on X this Saturday afternoon, after a meeting with a group of women, he said that “it always uplifts, emancipates, fills us with emotion and strengthens our convictions to engage in dialogue with Cuban women.” In that space he called for “continuing to fight any vestige of discrimination.” Nevertheless, he also used the forum to talk about “the energy blockade by the government of the United States” and reiterated that the country will not renounce “any of its dreams.”
He also spoke about the topic on Facebook, which unleashed a wave of complaints. In his message, accompanied by the image of a woman, Díaz-Canel wrote: “The light of our days has much of woman: sensitivity, talent, and commitment to the fate of the country.”
The word “light” was the trigger. One user replied: “Good morning, I ask please that no one talk to me about light, at least until service is restored; what sensitivity, commitment, or fate can you have after a blackout?”
Another user also referred to the lack of electricity and complained that there are “women who struggle daily, without electricity, with all the food spoiled, with children of school age, growing, with elderly parents. In short, women of today, not the ones highlighted on social media but those who every day give even their soul.”
*Translator’s note: “Diaz-Canel singao” rhymes. The epithet is variously translated as ‘bastard’, ‘motherfucker’ and other insults.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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