Cuba Protests and US Pressure

Five people have been arrested in Cuba for acts of “vandalism” after a small group of protesters broke into a provincial office of the Cuban Communist party and set fire to computers and furniture. The incident, which also affected a pharmacy and another shop, took place in the town of Moron, a little more than 300 miles (500km) east of Havana. Videos shared on social media show the protesters ransacking the office, removing documents, equipment and furniture, and burning everything in the street. A smaller group also threw stones. “What began peacefully, after an exchange with the authorities in the area, degenerated into vandalism against the headquarters of municipal committee of the Communist party,” the state-run newspaper Invasor said. It added that five people had been arrested. Although protests are rare in Cuba, the country is enduring a US oil blockade and other intense pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, who has stated openly he would like to see regime change in Havana. Recently, people have started banging pots and pans at night in the street or at home to vent their frustration and discontent over shortages of food and medicine. Residents are also suffering frequent rolling power blackouts that can last for up to 15 hours a day. Independent media and social media posts say that Havana is at the centre of these recent nightly protests, but they are spreading to other parts of the country, too. On Friday, the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmed for the first time that he was holding talks with the US government. Díaz-Canel said that no petroleum shipments have arrived in Cuba in the past three months, and blamed the US oil blockade for that. He said the island was running on a mixture of natural gas, solar power and thermoelectric plants. Trump has said Cuba will be next on his agenda after the Iran war and the US overthrow of Cuba’s top ally, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, in January. Cuba relied on Venezuela for oil and Trump, who says he effectively runs Caracas, has cut off the supply. The oil embargo has brought Cuba’s already troubled economy to the brink of collapse. The Republican leader has placed the impoverished island under a US oil blockade, strangling its fuel supply on the basis of what he called the “extraordinary threat” posed by Cuba to the US. This comes on top of a six-decades-old US trade embargo.