Protests in Cuba: A tale of tyranny in three acts.

Hotel Santa Clara Libre on Oct 2nd at 8:33pm only bldg with electricity. Source: Yad

Act I: The storm hits, and Cuban hotels quickly recover power and return to business as normal. Rest of the island in darkness. Protests break out in Cuba. 

Hurricane Ian over Cuba on September 26, 2022

 

Category 3 Hurricane Ian battered the west of Cuba on September 26th, and an already crumbling national electrical grid collapsed leaving Cubans without electricity. 

The entire island of Cuba went black without electricity. Not just the Western part that was impacted by Hurricane Ian.  

Cuba seen from space on September 27, 2022 after Hurricane Ian.

However GAESA's hotels continued to have electricity and were promoting tourism to the island in the aftermath of the storm on September 29th.

The Hotel Nacional of Cuba reported on September 29th over Twitter that all services were "available to our guests." They added that "some of the clients have even joined in cleaning and tidying up the outdoor areas."

Diaz-Canel prior to fleeing from Cubans.

Reports of protests emerged across Cuba on September 29th. Diaz-Canel fled from an encounter with Cuban citizens in Batabanó. Cubans repudiated the selected Cuban President, and his convoy sped out of the area. 

Why are Cubans upset? Whereas hotels across the island are already operating normally, most Cubans are still in the dark without electricity. Food has already been hard to come by due to the Cuban dictatorship's internal blockade, and whatever meager amounts they have are rotting. 

Yes, Cubans are protesting the incompetence of the regime. They are protesting the failure to maintain the infrastructure, and provide proper maintenance to the electrical grid. However, they are also calling for an end to the dictatorship and for freedom.

Act II: Protests expand across Cuba, and secret police, paramilitaries mobilize and travel to crackdown on demonstrations. 

The Wall Street Journal reporters Vivian Salama and José de Córdoba broke the story that the Biden Administration had “received a rare request from Cuba’s government  to provide emergency assistance” and that “the U.S. was still trying to determine  whether the government in Havana would supplement the request as it  works to determine the extent of the damage, according to the email communications.”

Civil society groups expressed concern that the Castro regime had a record of seizing and reselling humanitarian assistance, and called on the Biden Administration to provide humanitarian assistance directly to the Cuban people, or through independent civil society organizations and religious groups. 

On September 30, 2022 the Center received reports of an expanded military presence in the streets in the neighborhoods of Arroyo, Cerro, and Guinera in Havana. Cubalex, the Cuban human rights NGO that provides legal assistance to Cubans, shared an image of a street lined with police cars.

Andrea Rodriguez, the AP correspondent in Cuba, reported  that "an Associated Press journalist saw a total of about 400 people gathered in at least two spots in the Cerro neighborhood shouting, “We
want light, we want light,” and banging pots and pans."

14ymedio reported on September 30th that the Castro regime had "cut off internet access on the evening of September 29th after protests continued in some parts of the capital. Demonstrations continued in Cerro and Arroyo Naranjo, another protest began in San Francisco de Paula, in the municipality of San Miguel del Padron." 

Newsweek journalist Jack Dutton reported at 4:10am on September 30th that "people in Cuba have been protesting for 48 hours, according to multiple media reports, after the power went out due to Hurricane Ian and the internet has also reportedly been cut. Early on Friday, internet shutdown monitor NetBlocks.org posted on Twitter, showing a near total collapse of internet traffic from the Caribbean island."

The Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) in a Twitter thread called on the international community to support the Cuban people and called on the Cuban government to respect the rights of Cuban protesters. "There must not be a repeat of police and paramilitaries firing on unarmed civilians to terrorize populace as was done in July 2021," admonished CFC. 

⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show internet has been cut in #Cuba for the second evening in a row; metrics show a collapse in connectivity after 8 p.m. local time amid protests over poor conditions and power cuts worsened by Hurricane Ian 📉 #CubaPaLaCalle pic.twitter.com/YDJ6ZsTjwX

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 1, 2022

Cubans continued to protest over the next three nights, despite the internet being shut down by the dictatorship the past two nights across the island while regime agents were mobilized in large numbers, and cracked down on demonstrators. Human rights organizations are trying to compile lists of those arrested and/or disappeared.

Act III:  Reports emerge of Cubans beaten bloody by government agents in regime dress. Mass arrests, and international press claims that protests have diminished, but reports from Havana say different.

Military in civilian dress knocks down black Cuban woman protester.

Reports emerge, along with images and video of regime agents carrying baseball bats, and clubs that protesters have been badly beaten: faces smashed in, broken noses. 

"Explicit testimony about repression in Calle Línea (Havana). Mentions several people badly beaten, [Justicia11J] has only been able to identify among them José Adalberto Fernández Cañizares, who needed care at the Calixto García hosp before being transferred to a detention center."

Video also emerges of regime agents carrying clubs and chanting "I am Fidel" through city streets to intimidate Cubans. 

 Other videos appear of what appear to be the unconscious bodies of demonstrators carried away by regime agents. It is also learned that Cubans video taping protests, and repressive acts are being rounded up and arbitrarily detained.

Coda: Hotels could have opened their doors to Cubans in need, and defused a volatile situation.

The Miami Herald reported on September 27th that "on Monday [September 26th], several prominent Cubans and Cuban Americans signed a petition asking the heads of Meliá Hotels International, Iberostar, Kempinski, NH Hotel Group and other foreign hotel chains operating in Cuba to 'make room for Cuban families, most of them with children, who will be left destitute and homeless as a result of Ian.' During natural disasters in the United States, when public shelters have been overwhelmed, hotels have been used as a temporary housing solution.

Cuban activist Rosa María Payá, musician Paquito de Rivera, Modesto Maidique, former president of Florida International University, and the Reverend Jose Conrado of the Parish of Trinidad in Cuba, led the appeal."

Seven days later, and no response has been received from these hotels.

Cubans and Cuban Americans have requested a humanitarian corridor to get assistance directly to Cubans in need on the island, and circumvent profiteering by Castro's military junta.