Cuba opened summary trials to those who demonstrated against the blackouts

Providing the most basic public services has always been complicated in Cuba, which is dominated by repressive communism.

However, the passage of Hurricane Ivan through the island hit even harder the already weak structure that provides electric power to its provinces, causing service outages that, in several places, even lasted for several days.

Anger did not take long to appear. Localities in Havana, such as the district of Playa, were the scene at the end of September of authentic displays of courage by Cubans who stood up in front of the repressive bodies of the regime, demanding something as ordinary as having continuous electricity.

Videos with citizens “armed” with pots and pans, shouting slogans against the regime’s ineffectiveness of president Miguel Diaz-Canel, rolled left and right through social networks.

Fifteen days after those demonstrations, the atmosphere in Cuba continues to be heated.

A report by Radio Marti indicates that on Friday, during the hour of highest energy consumption, 40% of the Caribbean nation was without electricity service, in addition to severe failures in the drinking water supply.

As a result, Cubans have not ceased their protests against the regime in places such as Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Mayabeque, and Camagüey.

However, the government has not stood idly by.

The regime-controlled Prosecutor’s Office has indicated that it will proceed with the opening of trials against several demonstrators who the repressive forces have apprehended.

They will be charged with “burning of facilities, execution of acts of vandalism, closure of public roads, aggressions against officials, and incitement to violence,” among other alleged crimes.

Relatives of several detainees have pointed out that the modality used for this is practically that of a summary trial under the figure of “direct attestation” in the country.

There, they proceed from detention to prosecution with practically no prior investigation in a process loaded with irregularities.

“The General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic controls criminal proceedings in which facts that disturbed public order and the tranquility of the citizenry are investigated,” states the public communication of the Cuban Prosecutor’s Office without specifying how many people are detained for having participated in the demonstrations against the blackouts of the last weeks.

The investigative journalism initiative “Inventario” points out that 11 of Cuba’s 15 provinces have been the scene of citizen complaints to the Díaz-Canel regime in the most recent wave of demonstrations.

Thus, it is estimated that in a little more than two weeks, 92 protests against the dictatorship have taken place on the island, having a practically continuous development since the electricity cuts, drinking water, and internet services, as well as the problems of food supplies in various parts of the country worsened.

What is remarkable in all this is, moreover, the fact that the signs of the anger of Cubans have not been limited only to demands for a better provision of these services, but have been rather demonstrations in which citizens have expressed their disgust with the communist system that has oppressed the island for more than six decades, even calling for the end of the dictatorship without ambiguity.

With information from Gaceta

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