Cubans hold mass protests as country faces food and electricity shortages
Thousands of people in Cuba have participated in protests against the country’s communist government.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded by calling on his supporters to confront the demonstrators in the streets.
The anti-government rallies started spontaneously in several cities as Cuba endures its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with the country facing chronic shortages of electricity and food.
Protesters marched through the capital Havana on Sunday shouting “we want liberty” and met a heavy military and police presence when they reached the Capitol building.
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds and at least 10 people were arrested.
The security forces have also been accused of beating demonstrators with plastic pipes.
Several thousand protesters – mainly young people – also took to the streets of San Antonio de los Banos, a town about 40 kilometres south-west of Havana.
The security forces arrived soon after the protests began and Mr Diaz-Canel later visited the town.
Videos posted online showed him surrounded by party activists as residents heckled him.
On Sunday, he criticised the protests in a televised address.
“The order to fight has been given – into the street, revolutionaries,” he said.
“We call on all revolutionaries of the country, all communists, to go out in the streets where these provocations occur, from now on and in the next few days, and to face them in a decisive, firm and courageous way.”
Government supporters held counter-demonstrations in Havana.
A resident of San Antonio de los Banos said she joined a protest because she was exasperated by “the situation with electricity and food”.
Public anger has been driven by long queues for food, worsening power cuts and a critical shortage of medicine since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the US having imposed sanctions on Cuba.
“The energy situation seems to have produced some reaction,” Mr Diaz-Canel said.
He blamed the problems on sanctions imposed by former US president Donald Trump that have not changed under the government of Joe Biden.
He accused “a Cuban-American mafia” of using social media to stoke protests.
“People have come to express their dissatisfaction with the situation they are living in,” he said.
Communist Party events are often the only authorised gatherings in Cuba.
The country of about 11.3 million people came through the first months of the pandemic relatively unscathed, but health authorities have reported a recent surge in cases.
Francisco Duran, head of epidemiology at the Cuban Health Ministry, said the situation was alarming.
Citizens and celebrities have urged the government to make it possible for foreign donations to enter the country, with an opposition group calling for a “humanitarian corridor” to be established.
The government rejected the proposal and said Cuba was not a conflict zone.