CNN
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The Cuban justice minister’s office said that Cuban protesters who took to the streets after Hurricane Ian damaged the island’s already shaky power grid could face criminal charges.
In a note published in the island’s communist party newspaper Granma, prosecutors said they were investigating cases of arson and vandalism of state property, street closures and “insults”. to officials and forces of order.”
In addition, parents of minors who participate in protests could face charges of child endangerment, according to the note.
Anti-government protests are usually quickly broken up by Cuban police, but after Hurricane Ian exacerbated the island’s severe power shortages, Cubans across the island took to the streets to complain .
After forming in the South Caribbean Sea, Hurricane Ian was made landfall late last month as a Category 3 hurricane in Cuba just southwest of La Coloma in the western province of Pinar del Rio.
The storm’s intense winds and rain killed at least three people and knocked out power to the entire island, state media said.
Two of the deaths occurred in Pinar del Rio, where a woman died after the wall fell and a man died after his roof fell on him, state media said.
The state-run national electricity system shuts down power in Havana to prevent electric shock, death and property damage until the weather improves. But the nationwide blackout was caused by the storm and was not planned.
The storm exacerbated the economic crisis gripping Cuba, leading to shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Power outages across the island are frequent throughout the summer, leading to rare sporadic protests against the government. The protests that followed the storm made life even more difficult for already struggling Cubans.
Often at night, protesters in cities and towns pound pots and pans, angry that the government cuts power. Some protesters have called for the restoration of electricity service while others have demanded the resignation of Cuban leaders.
Recent protests have not reached the scale of July 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets demanding change, in biggest anti-government protests since the 1959 revolution.
After days of government power cuts last year, residents in the small city of San Antonio de los Baños have run out of patience. On July 11, 2021, they took to the streets in a rare moment of public disagreement on the island.
Cubans across the country were able to live stream and watch in real time the protests taking place in San Antonio de los Baños – and participate.
Almost immediately thousands of other Cubans protested. Some complained about shortages of food and medicine, others denounced high-ranking officials and called for greater civil liberties. Unprecedented protests have spread to cities and small towns.
While Cuban officials have long blamed US sanctions As for the island’s woes, protesters in the summer of 2021 raged against their own government for their increasingly dire living conditions.
In a speech on state TV, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Blaming the island’s economic problems on US sanctions, saying the protests were the result of a campaign of subversion directed from abroad and calling on Cubans loyal to The revolution took back the streets. The state is broken.
Cuban prosecutors said this summer, nearly 500 people were convicted and convicted in connection with the protests, in the largest mass trials on the island in decades. Prison terms ranged between four and 30 years for crimes including seduction.
