Cuba, a protest against the economic crisis repressed

A demonstration of a few dozen Cubans in the province of Guantanamo was repressed by the police. According to videos posted on social networks by the Ministry of Defense of Cuba, it was "indiscipline of some drunks during a public holiday."

It happened on Saturday night, in the small town of Caimanera, in the east of the country, near the American naval base of Guantanamo. From what we learn from the images that appeared online starting at 20:00 local time, a group of people gathered on the street in front of government buildings. The Internet from that moment began to be slow or unavailable.

In one video, a man complains of a power outage. The island is going through the worst economic crisis in 30 years, causing frequent power outages and shortages of food, medicine and fuel. Other images show men in military uniform attacking protesters and arresting some of them. There are no official figures on the number of arrests, but according to local activists there are at least five people detained.

"Cuban security forces responded violently to peaceful protests ... hitting citizens who demanded respect for human rights," the U.S. Embassy in Havana said in a tweet. The Defense's version came after midnight. It shows a still image from one of the videos circulated on the net with the words "Tranquility in Caimanera #VivaCuba". The post, published on Twitter, is accompanied by a text in which the protesters are called unruly drunks. The ministry then reports that the local population participated in restoring "calm and tranquility" in the area.

Amnesty International urged the "authorities to respect and guarantee the right to protest (...) without repression." The Cuban government has already blocked the state internet during the protests, sometimes even for days.