Cubans in Caimanera, a small port town near the US military base at Guantanamo, took to the streets late on Saturday night, according to social media and official reports, in the first known anti-government protests of the year in Cuba.
Videos posted on social media, many shared by dissidents outside Cuba and by human rights groups, showed men in military uniforms and civilian clothing clashing with dozens of protesters on a dimly lit street while onlookers recorded the events with cellphones.
The videos showed the protesters in the fishing village near the eastern tip of the country voicing anti-government chants and cries for “freedom.”
Tensions have run particularly high in communist-run Cuba for several weeks as a dire fuel shortage has stressed the country’s public transportation, power generation and food supply.
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, state-approved radio journalist Mabel Pozo said on social media that the protest began when “various citizens, some in a state of drunkenness, yelled statements against the Cuban social process and regarding their dissatisfactions.”
Pozo wrote that “security forces and other people contributed to dissuade people concentrated on the street, who responded and returned to their homes.”
State-run digital media outlet CubaDebate later said there were more people who were “curious than participants” at the Saturday night protest, characterizing the unrest as a media “show” hyped by dissidents.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports or video footage on social media, or the official media version of events.
Far-flung Caimanera is known in Cuba as the “first trench of anti-imperialism” for its proximity to the US naval base at Guantanamo. The town is more than 12 hours overland from the capital, Havana.
Protests in Cuba are exceedingly rare, but have cropped up more often in recent years as an economic crisis racks the country. While the its 2019 constitution grants Cubans the right to protest, a law more specifically defining that right is stalled in the legislature.
Hundreds of Cubans remain in jail after anti-government protests in July 2021, the largest since former Cuban president Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Cuba’s government says those jailed are guilty of assault, vandalism and sedition.
Rights groups, the EU and the US have all critiqued Cuba’s response to such protests as heavy-handed and repressive.
The US embassy in Havana on Sunday blasted Cuba’s handling of the Caimanera unrest.
“Last night, Cuban security forces responded violently to peaceful protests in the town of Caimanera, beating citizens for demanding human rights,” the embassy wrote on Twitter. “Cuba also shut down its Internet for fear of freedom of expression. The Cuban repression of the rights of its citizens is cruel and useless; freedom always wins.”
Human rights watchdog Cubalex reported five protesters missing as of late Sunday after clashes with security forces the previous day.
Global Web watchdog Netblocks showed a sharp drop in Web traffic in Cuba on Saturday shortly after the protest was reported.
“Network data show a collapse in internet traffic in #Cuba amid protests for freedom and human rights centering around Caimanera, Guantanamo; connectivity remains intermittent at present with partial restoration noted,” the internet monitor wrote on Twitter.
Dissidents and the US have long accused the Cuban government of blocking Internet traffic countrywide when protests flare in a bid to contain anti-government sentiment.
Meanwhile, Cuban officials allege that the US uses social media to stoke unrest in the country in a bid to overthrow the government.
The state-run media version of events appeared to blame the lack of Internet access on a spike in Web traffic.
“The tranquility of the afternoon was altered this Saturday in Caimanera and of course, the Internet nearly collapsed,” Pozo said.
That message was shared by state-run TV broadcaster Canal Caribe several hours after the first videos were posted, confirming the protest in Caimanera, but assuring people that “the streets were calm.”
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