A group of protesters attacked the offices of the ruling Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in the central Cuban city of Moron on Saturday, with five of the protesters reportedly detained by Cuban authorities.
Protests in the city began late Friday and were initially peaceful, demanding an end to power outages and food shortages. But protests appeared to have escalated overnight, with videos shared on social media showing Communist Party offices being ransacked. Computers, documents and furniture were removed from the building and then burned in the middle of the street.
Protests have begun to occur more frequently on the authoritarian-run island as it faces a U.S.-imposed oil blockade. Earlier this month, Cubans frustrated by the power outage took to the streets in the main cities of Havana and Matanzas.
The Moron protests occurred shortly after Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced that the Cuban and U.S. governments were engaging in diplomatic talks to ease tensions between the two countries and end the U.S. oil blockade that is contributing to the country’s current economic crisis.
The increasingly frequent protests were largely caused by power outages, but some protesters used them as an opportunity to demand an end to the PCC’s one-party rule over the island.
The Moron protests reportedly heard chants of the famous anti-regime slogans “patria y vida,” meaning “fatherland and life,” and “abajo la dictadura” (overthrow the dictatorship).
Some videos also appear to show protesters in Moron throwing stones at police and PCC officials, forcing them to flee. Independent Cuban journalist Guillermo Rodríguez-Sánchez reported that police retaliated against protesters. It is reported that Cuban police fired their sidearms and hit the protester in the thigh.
Because the incident occurred during an internet outage in the area, much of this information remains unconfirmed.
In response to the protests, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote to
But he warned, “What we can never understand, justify or acknowledge is violence.”
A Cuban official, who requested anonymity, said: Latin America Report The protests were said to have occurred in part due to “the logical dissatisfaction of the population due to the (economic) situation.”
But he also suggested that the protests were partly “organized and encouraged in Miami to cause violence. The people in Miami (the Cuban-American anti-communist lobby group) are against dialogue and want to force the United States to take military action.”
The official insisted that the opinions he expressed were personal and did not represent the Cuban government. Various prominent Cuban-Americans living in Florida who are opposed to the Cuban regime, such as Congressman Carlos Giménez, have expressed their support for the Moron protests.
Jiménez’s comments are consistent with the history of significant segments of the Cuban American diaspora calling for and supporting regime change on the island.
Recently, 10 armed Cubans living in the United States reportedly attempted to infiltrate Cuba in a Florida-registered speedboat with the goal of destabilizing the communist government.
The mission to infiltrate Cuba is reportedly linked to the People’s Self-Defense Forces, a Cuban opposition group that promotes covert armed activity against the Havana government and whose leader resides in Miami.
Like an unnamed Cuban official, Díaz-Canel blamed the power shortage and subsequent protests on “the brutally tightened U.S. energy blockade over the past few months.”
The nationwide U.S. blockade of foreign oil imports to the communist-run island actually led to chronic fuel and power shortages. No foreign fuel supplies have arrived in Cuba for the past three months.
According to experts, Cuba needs about 110,000 barrels of oil per day to maintain basic services. Domestically, the Latin American country produces just 40,000 barrels per day.
Featured image: A pro-regime mural in Moron, the site of the most recent protests. The mural depicts Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
Image source: Charles Adam via Wikimedia Commons
patent: Creative Commons License
