Protesters mobilized on the streets of Cuba on Friday night (13) to protest against the precarious situation in the country, led by the regime of Miguel Diáz-Canel. The focus of the protests was Ciego de Ávila, where protesters even set fire to the local headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
The episodes occur amid growing pressure from the USA for the fall of the communist dictatorship. This Friday, the regime admitted that it is maintaining contact with representatives of Donald Trump’s government to “find ways out” of the impasse between the countries.
Social media reports shared by residents and local portals, such as Cubanet, show countless people walking through the streets banging pots and chanting slogans such as “Freedom!”. In some videos, it is also possible to see motorcycles passing through the crowd, lighting the way with their headlights in the darkness caused by power cuts.
The Cuban newspaper Invader reported that a group of protesters arrived at the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) during the early hours of the morning and began to remove furniture from the reception area and then set fire to it in the middle of the street.
One of the regime’s opponents, Cuban activist Rosa María Payá, who was appointed member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in July last year, denounced reports of shootings during the demonstrations.
“There are reports of police shootings in Morón against unarmed and peaceful people,” he stated in X.
Or Argentine portal Infobae reported that an independent journalist who was at the scene confirmed that a protester was hit in the thigh by the shots. The mobilization occurred after an interruption in internet access in the city.
The most recent report released by ONG Prisoners Defenderswhich follows the situation of political prisoners on the island, reveals that the Cuban regime arrested 28 critics of the regime for political reasons in the month of February alone – 23 men and 5 women. Additionally, 21 names were removed from the list of political prisoners, in line with serving sentences almost five years after the major protests of July 11, 2021.
The organization highlights that not all names removed from the list were released. One of the removals occurred due to the death from torture and medical negligence of political prisoner Luis Miguel Oña Jiménez.
