HAVANA – Cuban police cracked down on protesters in the isolated town of Caimanera, shut to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison, soon after dozens took to the streets on Saturday demanding greater living ailments and independence.
Movies posted to social media present a crowd protesting in front of federal government buildings, just before riot law enforcement arrived and forcibly arrested various demonstrators.
The US Embassy in Havana condemned the crackdown, tweeting on Sunday that safety forces “responded violently to tranquil protests in the town of Caimanera, beating citizens for demanding human rights.”
“Cuba also shut down its internet for anxiety of independence of expression,” the embassy wrote.
Netblocks, an firm that tracks web exercise, reported it appeared the Cuban governing administration experienced taken down the world-wide-web across the full island as news of the protests unfold.
Pro-Cuban federal government bloggers blamed the protesters uploading video clips of the protests for the online disruptions. Nonetheless, the Cuban govt has a history of taking down the point out-presented internet in the course of past protests, sometimes for a number of days.
Net connectivity appeared to be mainly restored on Sunday, and Cuban point out media Cubadebate reported no more protests experienced happened.
Cuban officials did not say how lots of people today experienced been arrested. But activist teams claimed at least 5 men and women had been detained by police.
Cubadebate experienced claimed on Sunday that the “strange demonstration” was “initiated by an incident involving a small group of drunk persons.” It blamed “counterrevolutionary media” in the United States for seeking to portray the protests as the beginning of a big-scale rebellion versus the communist-run authorities.
Caimanera is identified as “the 1st trench in opposition to imperialism,” as the town lies just across Guantanamo Bay from the US naval base, infamous as the prison the place terrorism suspects were tortured and sent to indefinitely await trial.
The town-turned-armed forces-zone is surrounded by guard towers, bomb shelters dug into the hillsides, hid armed service encampments and miles of cactus requested planted by late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
Foreigners and even Cubans have to have special permission to stop by the town since of its proximity to the US foundation. When CNN was able to pay a visit to Caimanera approximately 5 many years ago, citizens complained of their isolation but explained the federal government gave them excess rations like milk and meat, viewed as luxuries by lots of Cubans.
But even the city has not been spared from widespread shortages that have rocked the rest of the state, citizens say in videos posted to social media.
Since mid-April, Cuba has been beset with its most dire fuel shortages in a long time, prompting comparisons to the intense disruptions Cubans suffered soon after the tumble of the Soviet Union.
Strains extend for blocks even at gasoline stations exactly where there has been no fuel for times late night fist fights have damaged out involving motorists accusing one one more of reducing the line. There are also raising scarcities of food stuff and drugs.
Cuba’s govt has blamed US financial sanctions for the disruptions, but also conceded in state-operate media that nations which ordinarily source the island with oil have not been sending promised gas.
