Media report: More than 5,000 Cubans apparently arrested after protests

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Police officers in the capital, Havana

Photo: Eliana Aponte / AP

According to independent journalists, thousands of people have been arrested three days after the demonstrations against the government in Cuba began.

Among the more than 5,000 arrested are more than 120 activists and journalists, the online portal 14ymedio reported on Wednesday, which had collected statements from the population.

The security forces were sometimes brutal, as can be seen in a video.

The authenticity of the recordings was confirmed by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch on Wednesday.

The video shows how security forces in the town of Cárdenas try to break into an apartment through the front entrance, while inside a woman with a small child in her arms yells "my children" and "why are you doing this?"

Then an officer comes into the apartment from the other direction with a raised pistol.

A part of the video, apparently recorded later, shows a pool of blood on the floor.

The online portal »CiberCuba« reported that the woman's husband was shot, beaten and taken away in front of his family.

State media reported on Tuesday of a death in a demonstration in Havana on Monday.

The 36-year-old tried to attack a police station.

There was no information about the circumstances of his death.

First protests of this kind in decades

On Sunday, thousands of Cubans demonstrated in numerous cities for freedom, against oppression and an economy of shortage.

There had been no such protests in the Caribbean country for decades.

Cuba's economy is suffering heavily from the slump in tourism in the pandemic as well as from US sanctions.

There is also no aid from Venezuela, as the allied state itself is in a crisis.

There is a shortage of food and medicine in Cuba.

In addition, the number of corona infections and deaths has recently increased significantly.

mjm / dpa