Cuba Shuts Down Internet, Deploys Regime Thugs to Silence Growing Hurricane Protests

Young Cubans connect to internet from their mobile phone in Havana, on June 6, 2019. - Cub
YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images
Frances Martel

The Communist Party of Cuba appeared to shut down access to the internet nationwide on Thursday night and deploy its repressive forces on the ground in Havana and other major cities in response to civilians organizing ongoing protests demanding an end to communism.

The protests this week are being exacerbated by the government’s total incompetence in handling the arrival of Hurricane Ian, which at one point on Tuesday resulted in an island-wide failure of the national power grid. At press time, communist authorities claim that only 12 percent of the power grid is operational, making electricity accessible only in the wealthiest parts of the country – controlled by Communist Party elites – and in luxury tourist destinations. The regime-controlled Gaviota tourism agency boasted on Twitter on Thursday that its luxury hotels remain fully functional.

In areas where Cuban citizens live, many are protesting that they have endured rolling blackouts for months – which have triggered consistent outbursts of protesting nationwide for the past year. Cubans have consistently opposed communism for decades – prompting their regime to engage in mass killings via firing squad, build labor camps, and commit other atrocities common to its ideology – but the Anglophone West noticed most recently last year during a nationwide protest on July 11, 2021. That protest also resulted in severe human rights abuses, in particular the mass detention of child political prisoners, and protests calling for an end to communism have persisted long after American corporate media outlets stopped covering them.

Locals speaking to independent Cuban and diaspora outlets lament that their food is rotting with little possibility of electricity returning and that local shops do not have supplies, putting into question the long-term food stability of affected areas.

Protests appeared to begin in Havana on Thursday afternoon. The independent outlet Cubanet shared a video taken by locals of large groups of people taking the streets in Havana chanting “we want light!” and marching. Most of the protesters appeared to be women.

Cubanet reported that four different Havana neighborhoods experienced protests throughout Thursday.

The Madrid-based publication Diario de Cuba, reporting on the same protest, estimated that “hundreds” of Cubans marched against the regime on Thursday, chanting both “we want light!” and “freedom!” Anonymous Havana residents told Diario de Cuba that citizens are panicking about their food supplies.

“The lack of electricity has caused many people’s food to rot in their refrigerators. Those who have access to gas for cooking can avoid this by boiling meat, as many have done,” Diario de Cuba reported, “but those who also need electricity to cook do not have this option.”

“People are tired, brother, its the same thing always,” one protester can be heard lamenting in other videos shared by Cubans on social media. “It’s all talk, its too much already. There is no Revolution and no nothing, here what there is is repression.”

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Other videos from Havana shared on social media, which Breitbart News has been unable to independently verify, appear to show puppet Castro regime “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel attempting to make a community visit but being met by boos and ultimately slinking away from an increasingly angry crowd.

The protests continued into the night. Cubans with access to mobile phones shared videos that appeared to show Cuban state security forces preparing to attack protesters.

Miami-based journalist Mario Pentón reported that sources on the ground indicated that protests had also materialized beyond Havana to Matanzas province.

The furthest east known protests occurred in Holguín, about 420 miles from Havana. Holguín was too far west to be significantly affected by Hurricane Ian, but is in near-total blackout, anyway, prompting a city-wide protest on Thursday night in which residents banged pots and pans demanding a competent government. Protests began after more than 24 hours in the dark.

Some anonymous reports indicated that protesters clashed violently in Havana with state security forces, but the stream of videos and anonymous reports appeared to abruptly stop at around 8 p.m., when a total internet blackout that knocked out even regime-run websites like Granma, that of the official newspaper of the Communist Party. Multiple independent internet monitors confirmed that Cuba did not have access to the internet in its entirety for most of Thursday night. Radio Martí, a U.S. government outlet, estimated that the blackout lasted around seven hours on Thursday.

It remains unknown at press time if protests occurred elsewhere on the island, particularly if the regime has used its thugs to silence residents of Pinar del Río, the westernmost province. Pinar del Río received a direct hit from the hurricane; early reports indicate that large farms and villages may have suffered total damage.

Cubans took the streets of Havana once again on Friday afternoon, banging pots and pans to demand a functional government. The vast majority of the island does not yet have access to electricity at press time.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

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