14ymedio, Havana, 15 July 2022 — The state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, kept the internet cut off for at least half an hour in Cuba, coinciding with two protests that took place almost simultaneously, in the early morning this Friday, in the capital and in the west of the country.
In Los Palacios, Pinar del Río, the population showed it was fed up with the constant blackouts and power outages they have been suffering for months, aggravated by the summer heat. A group of people took to the streets in the middle of the night banging pots and pans and shouting “we are hungry” and “Díaz-Canel singao!” [motherfucker], as could be seen in videos broadcast on social networks.
In front of the Party headquarters, the people of Los Palacios left their fear in the drawer.
– The Engineer (@El_IngenieroCu) July 15, 2022
Shortly after, official accounts published images of the streets of the same area in complete calm to deny not the information, but that the protests had been significant.
The same operation occurred in Centro Habana, where a woman who was protesting in El Curita park, for being homeless, was joined by dozens of mothers who showed solidarity with her cause. “11:54 at night, a Cuban mother with 2 girls and one in a wheelchair claims that they have nowhere to live because their house is in poor condition,” said a Facebook user.
According to a social network account related to the regime, La Página de Mauro Torres, the protest was dissolved when the first secretary of the Party in the municipality attended the woman personally.
“You need to have kettledrums and be on the people’s side in order that, when there is a protest, a government official comes forward and looks for solutions. Good for her, she is a short woman, but with a tremendous heart. And also for those who, in their eagerness to solve problems, can find a light in the attention,” said the page owner.
Next, they posted several photographs of the place located between Galiano and Reina street, all calm.
Despite their apparent transience, the protests confirm the pressure cooker that the Island has become, whose citizens no longer hesitate, despite everything, to go out and complain to the rulers about their situation.
The internet outage was also brief, as was confirmed by the page Inventario, with data from Internet Outage Alerts, with a graph showing a sharp drop in connectivity, although the connection has been intermittent in the hours since, according to different people in various provinces of the Island. The service interruption, which was not announced for any technical reason and for which Etecsa has, so far, given no explanations, shows the regime’s commitment to control information, as it fears a new outbreak like the one of July 11th last year, commonly called “11J”.
Translated by Andrea Libre
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
