Desperation in Cuba Opens up for Rare Cases of Civil Unrest

By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

New York Times

The protesters appeared in the streets of Morón, a city in central Cuba, late Friday evening. What began as a peaceful gathering, Cuban state media reported, escalated when a group of people threw stones at the local headquarters of the Communist Party, the country’s sole ruling political force. Then they broke into the building, dragged some furniture outside and set it alight.

Videos circulating on social media showed the group approaching the building with flaming objects and throwing them inside. “Burn it all down!” one man said. Others joined him, shouting, “Freedom! Freedom!” A New York Times analysis of the footage confirmed its authenticity and found the videos were most likely filmed overnight Friday into Saturday.

In one of the videos, what sounds like a gunshot can be heard. “They got him,” a man said as the camera shows a person limping and then collapsing before people gather around, calling for help.  It is not clear from the video if the man was actually shot.

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The unrest in Morón is the most significant in years, experts say. It came only hours after President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged in a televised address that members of the Cuban government had been engaging in talks with the Trump administration, which has effectively cut off oil shipments to the island for the past three months. 

The discussions, Mr. Díaz-Canel said, aimed at developing “through dialogue, a possible solution to the bilateral differences that exist between the two nations,” describing the impact of recent fuel shortages as “tremendous.” He and other Cuban officials denied that political change was on the table.

For many, the situation has become unbearable. As power plants exhaust their fuel supplies, ever-longer blackouts have paralyzed neighborhoods nationwide, bringing services like food distribution and garbage collection to a halt.

ImageA dim room with a person watching a TV. 

Teresa Rodriguez, 58, watching the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on state television in Havana on Friday.Credit...Norlys Perez/Reuters

Residents say that some Cubans have increasingly expressed their desperation in recent weeks by banging pots and pans at night, a popular local form of protest. But the unrest in Morón appears to represent an escalation. 

In 2021, the largest anti-government protests since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution led to a brutal wave of repression. Hundreds arrested at that time remain detained, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

“It’s all been demands like, ‘Bring back power, fix this or that,’ but not trying to burn down a building of such an emblematic institution, which is the party,” said Andrés Pertierra, a historian of Cuba with the University of Wisconsin. “That’s highly unusual.”

In the 2021 demonstrations, property damage was severely punished. La Güinera, a poor Havana neighborhood where the crowd attacked a police station with stones and bottles, had the highest concentration of sedition charges after the protests.

“But trying to burn a party building rather than a cop station in the broader context of police repression” makes Morón seem “exceptional,” Mr. Pertierra said. There is no evidence that the protesters succeeded in actually burning down the party building.

Morón, which has provided workers for nearby resorts popular among tourists for their pristine beaches, has been hard hit by power outages and an outbreak of chikungunya, one of several mosquito-borne diseases afflicting Cuba.

In response to the Morón protest, Mr. Díaz-Canel said on Saturday that he could understand people’s frustrations with the deteriorating situation. But “what will never be understandable, justified or tolerated,” he said, “is the violence and vandalism that threatens public peace and the security of our institutions.”

On a street, a person pushes a cart of gray sacks while a three-wheeled vehicle carries passengers. A large white building with visible external staircases rises behind them.

Collecting recyclable materials in Havana on Friday. Because of a U.S. oil embargo, Cuba is facing power outages and growing food shortages.Credit...Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The episode also caught the attention of American officials. “I was in Morón in January, and I’m very concerned about the situation,” Mike Hammer, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, said on social media on Saturday. “I met some ordinary Cubans there. I hope they’re OK.”

At least five people were arrested in the episode, and another “drunken” person was injured after a fall, Cuba’s Interior Ministry said, citing a news report by a state-owned newspaper. The authorities made no mention of anyone being shot. The Communist Party newspaper Granma said that other buildings were damaged, too, including a pharmacy and a state-run store.

On Saturday, Morón government officials and local party leaders held what a state-owned newspaper called a “revolutionary reaffirmation ceremony” to criticize the protest and express support for the state 

José Raúl Gallego, a researcher for the Cuban exile human rights group Cubalex, said that what happened in Morón showed how dissent may be becoming more confrontational. “For the first time,” he said, “people are going to the heart of political power and attacking it head-on.”

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Mr. Gallego added that the number of protests or expressions of dissent on the island have risen from 30 in January to 130 in the first half of March.

More might follow, Mr. Pertierra said.

“The conditions that created this incident are still there,” he said, “and will remain there indefinitely unless something changes drastically regarding energy and food supply.”

David C. Adams, Jack Nicas and Devon Lum contributed reporting.