The keys to the massive and unprecedented protests against the Castro dictatorship in Cuba

Thousands of people staged biggest anti-government protests in Cuba in 27 years on Sunday, What left dozens of detainees / disappeared Yes clashes after the dictator’s call Miguel Díaz-Canel to his supporters to confront the demonstrators.

Not used to seeing street riots on TV and, even less, to the police using batons, tear gas or firing shots in the air, Cubans are still digesting Sunday’s historic anti-government protests.

“Nothing like this has ever happened”, says Yoelnis Pérez, 35 years old. “I was amazed, I was scared, because it was something huge. In 35 years that I have, I had not had this experience “, he explains to the agency. AFP this art teacher, who was graduating from the school in Old Havana, where she works, when she noticed an unusual traffic of police and patrols in the neighborhood.

But the thousands of people who, like Pérez, took to the streets, they have different reasons for protesting.

Poor management of the pandemic

Cuba, one of the countries that managed to bypass the first phase of the pandemic, is now suffering the ravages of the second wave. The country, of around 11 million people, has had daily records of cases and deaths from COVID-19 for days.

Cuba notified this Monday 6,423 new infections and cumulates 244,914 cases and 1,579 deaths, including 42 on the last day, according to the daily report of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).

Castro’s regime insists the lack of necessary drugs, supplies and equipment against COVID is due to tougher U.S. sanctions, however, the professionals consulted attribute the resurgence of cases to the overcrowding which occurs in the isolation centers, in the increasingly long queues that the population makes to obtain basic products and in the hasty reopening of the island to foreign tourism.

The worst economic crisis in decades

Cuba is also mired in its major economic crisis in more than two decades, with a large balance of payments deficit and unable to meet its external debt. In 2020, GDP fell 11%, its worst drop since 1993.

The scarcity of basic products, food and drugs, systematic power cuts in certain regions and the generalization of exclusive payment stores In foreign currency, they motivated the protests that first erupted in San Antonio de Los Baños (30 kilometers east of Havana) and then spread to other places, including the Cuban capital.

Given this scenario, the most pressing issue is the drug shortage.. Professionals consulted by Infobae denounce that the lack of remedies and supplies is unprecedenteds, being even worse than that experienced during the severe crisis the country experienced after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“They boast that Cuba is a ‘medical powerhouse’, that it is not real at all”, dice Manuel Guerra, obstetrician at the Buenaventura polyclinic in Holguín.

According to the neurosurgeon Alexander baby, the crisis began long before the pandemic, although the covid “made it all worse”. “People are desperate“, he says. “There aren’t even pain relievers to relieve headaches. “

The regime also attributes the shortages to the US embargo in place since 1962, exacerbated by the 243 measures put in place by the Donald Trump administration. However, the experts consulted assure that the health problems are due to the fact that the government of Migual Díaz-Canel decided to give priority to investments in the repressive apparatus of the State.

“What he allocates to the repressive force is more than he allocates to drugs produced in the country, which you do not need to import anything either, there are essential drugs that have been produced in the local pharmaceutical industry and nothing is intended for them, ”Guerra explains.

Lack of freedoms

The most recent example of the repression of the Cuban regime was reflected in the event of an Internet service interruption and social media to prevent protesters from organizing.

Cuba woke up on Monday in tense calm, without mobile internet service and with a strong police presence in the streets of Havana. Social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram cannot be used, according to the site. Netblocks.

The image of the day was featured by the dozens of women who gathered in front of police stations like the one on Zanja Street in Havana, to inquire about the fate of their husbands, children and relatives arrested or missing during the events of Sunday.

Who is leading the movement?

There is no defined leadership. Cuban citizens from all social sectors spontaneously and peacefully joined the organized and documented protests on social networks, and whose government blames the United States for organizing.

On the previous days, a group of young independents organized a virtual campaign collect donations and send them to the regions hardest hit by the health crisis, such as the province of Matanzas (west). They later joined the protests in the streets.

What is the government saying?

The government calls it “mercenaries“O”lackey“To the participants in the ‘actions of discredit’ as described by the massive protests. President Díaz-Canel responded calling on his supporters to take to the streets to fight the protests.

In a televised speech today, denied the crackdown on protesters, despite videos showing heavy police action and multiple reports of arrests of protesters.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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