‘Dismantle the dictatorship:’ Local activists demand change amid economic crisis in Cuba

In a news conference hosted by U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Florida, local leaders and activists voiced their concerns Monday amid ongoing street protests sparked by power outages and food shortages in Cuba.

It comes after hundreds took to the streets last weekend in Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city, demanding food and power after an economic crisis has left many everyday Cubans with scarce amounts of each.

“This regime either through (Fidel) Castro, or through the current regime, has denied the Cuban people freedom for over 60 years,” said Gimenez, who also chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.

“In an economy like in Cuba, a vertical economy, when the state collapses, all the services stop, and that is what we are seeing right now,” added Cuban activist Ramon Raul Sanchez.

Cuban activist Rosa María Payá emphasized that the protests have roots spanning years, highlighting the need to address the humanitarian crisis by dismantling the dictatorship.

“This didn’t start yesterday,” said Payá. “The protest has been taking place for years. The way out of the humanitarian crisis is to get rid of the dictatorship.”

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and members of Congress, including Gimenez and Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart are among the South Florida leaders who have released statements on the protests, also calling for change.

State media confirmed the protests in Santiago, while the U.S. Embassy in Havana said there were also reports of protests in several other provinces across the island. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also referred to protests in a social media post, though he did not specify where they occurred.

In reporting on events in Santiago, the government-linked news organization El Necio said, “Due to the long hours of power outages from lack of fuel and other situations arising from the current economic crisis, several people took to the streets” to protest.

Cuba is facing one of its worst economic and energy crises ever.

Waves of blackouts have grown worse in recent weeks, adding to frustrations over food shortages and inflation that have made it increasingly difficult to make ends meet on the communist-governed island.

Hundreds of thousands of people have migrated, with many headed to the United States.

Videos showing people chanting “electricity and food” were quickly shared by Cubans on and off the island on platforms like X and Facebook.

Gimenez said he’s urging the Biden administration while working with Congress to identify and fund technologies to help Cubans secure better access to the internet.

“They said they wanted freedom, they said they want food, and they want energy,” he exclaimed. “The first thing they did was to shut off the internet and shut off communication. Why? Because they fear their own people.”

“Internet should be put in place to empower the people with communication and for them to send out the abuses that are being committed and the messages to be sent to the world,” said Sanchez.

In recent years, the internet has become an important tool in Cuba to facilitate and distribute news of protests against the government, but it has also been used to spread false information about supposed protests.

It was most notably used during mass demonstrations in 2021 that saw the arrests of some demonstrators and mass internet outages. Those protests were also triggered by power and food shortages.

The surge in Cuban arrivals at the U.S. southern border reflects worsening conditions on the island.

Gimenez, however, did not support a recent bipartisan Senate border bill aimed at assisting asylum seekers. Instead, he emphasized the need to control the southern border before addressing other issues.

“The first thing that has to happen is control the southern border, then we can have that discussion,” he said.

Díaz-Canel accused anti-government “terrorists” that he said were located in the U.S. of inciting the protests, saying they were “encouraging actions against the internal order of the country.”

“Several people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation of the electricity service and food distribution. This context is being exploited by the enemies of the Revolution in order to destabilize” the government, he wrote on X.

The U.S. Embassy urged the Cuban government to respect the protests in a post on its Facebook page.

“We are aware of reports of peaceful protests in Santiago, Bayamo, Granma and elsewhere in Cuba,” it said. “We urge the Cuban government to respect the human rights of the protesters and attend to the legitimate needs of the Cuban people.”

“If the people and the government and the Congress of the US wants to once and for all to stop the root cause of this cyclic migratory crisis, they should pay attention to what the Cuban government is asking for in the street, which is freedom because democracy in Cuba is essential,” said Payá..

Here’s what Jimenez had to say when asked by Local 10 News if he would support more government funding for Haiti: