Chaos Begins to Unfold on Another Caribbean Island as People Take to Streets Demanding Food and Power
As if Haiti’s descent into anarchy wasn’t enough, one of their Caribbean neighbors is becoming plagued with its own kind of instability.
Reports are beginning to come out of their Communist neighbor, Cuba, that many Cubans took to the streets on Sunday, demanding both food and electricity.
As the Miami Herald reported, ordinary Cubans have become more vocal in their dissatisfaction over the past few years, with their protest of COVID restrictions in 2021 becoming the largest public demonstration in the nation since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, according to Bloomberg.
#17M #ProtestasCuba #Bayamo #Cuba #Manifestaciones En Bayamo también se registra manifestaciones este domingo. Una multitud en las calles, algunas personas andar a pie y otras se mueven en bicicletas, triciclos y motos eléctricas https://t.co/ldgFSvNyjL pic.twitter.com/SPTHAkQslX
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) March 18, 2024
While the 2021 protests led to vicious crackdowns by the Communist government, the widespread international backlash from that incident has led officials to respond differently.
The Cuban government is blaming the U.S. for the unrest in the country. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernadnez de Cossio posted on X, “There is a new desperate attempt from the US to [destabilize] #Cuba Taking advantage of the critical situation that 6 decades of economic blockade help create to incite [violence], social unrest, and disrupt peace. An open act of [aggression] from imperialism’s text books.”
There is a new desperate attempt from the US to distabelize #Cuba Taking advantage of the critical situation that 6 decades of economic blockade help create to incite violance, social unrest, and disrupt peace. An open act of agression from imperialism’s text books.
— Carlos F. de Cossio (@CarlosFdeCossio) March 17, 2024
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel echoed the sentiment on his X account, without directly naming the U.S. “Several people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation of electrical service and food distribution. This context is attempted to be taken advantage of by the enemies of the Revolution, for destabilizing purposes,” a translation of the post provided by X said.
Varias personas han expresado su inconformidad con la situación del servicio eléctrico y la distribución de alimentos.
Este contexto se intenta aprovechar por los enemigos de la Revolución, con fines desestabilizadores.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) March 18, 2024
The protests, videos of which are flooding social media, were spurred on by a variety of factors.
Rare protests have broken out in Cuba with tensions rising over power outages & food shortages during an economic crisis in the Communist island nation
Groups of demonstrators marched on Sunday in Santiago, the second-largest city, calling for “power and food”
Source: FT pic.twitter.com/amNkOgp9JG
— Zagonel (@Zagonel85) March 18, 2024
❗🔥🇨🇺 – Protests in Cuba against the lack of electricity and food in Santiago de Cuba continue.
Authorities try to calm protesters from a rooftop.
The Socialist Government sent trucks loaded with food to try to calm protests in Santiago de Cuba. pic.twitter.com/WxhzREFySZ
— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) March 17, 2024
#BREAKING: CUBA’S STREETS ERUPT
A wave of protests sweeps Cuba over severe food, goods, and power shortages. Citizens demand solutions, boldly voicing opposition and calling for freedom, urging the Communist Party’s removal from power.
Amidst the energy crisis, Cuba seeks UN… pic.twitter.com/G2yimP1hzx
— Genius Bot X (@GeniusBotX) March 18, 2024
According to the Miami Herald, blackouts can last up to 12 hours per day, and agriculture production has slowed while inflation has only increased, causing massive food shortages.
“[T]he protests started in Santiago de Cuba in front of a government building, with mothers complaining they could not feed their children, following hours without electricity. Later, hundreds of people joined, forcing the top Communist Party official in the province, Beatriz Johnson, to climb on a house roof to shout to protesters that the government would provide donated milk enough for five days along with products,” per the outlet.
The crisis has become so bad, that for the first time, the Cuban government has reached out to the United Nations for emergency supplies of milk.
Furthermore, Bloomberg reported, the price of diesel and gasoline has increased by 400 percent.
The protests occurred primarily in the second largest city in Cuba, Santiago.
The increase of massive protests in the island nation presents a worrying pattern for the region — a pattern which, thanks to their proximity to the U.S., could have grave consequences for our great nation.
Granted, Cuba is much more stable than Haiti has been even in the past fifty years, and it’s unlikely that Cuba will descend in pure anarchy in the same way.
However, this does not mean the nation is perfect (far from it), and seeing as it’s not the only Caribbean nation facing difficulties, we should be aware of what’s happening not far from our borders.
If the fall of Haiti starts a domino effect in the Caribbean, the U.S. will find itself with a major humanitarian crisis only miles away.
Will the U.S. become more involved in the region as instability rises?
Should the U.S. get more involved if more nations follow Haiti’s path?
It’s difficult to say right now, but we as a nation should try and figure that out before the worst potentially unfolds.
The last thing we need is to be caught unawares by a crisis perilously close to our borders.
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