CNN
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Protestors in Cuba who’ve been taking to the streets after Hurricane Ian broken the island’s already faltering energy grid may face felony fees, Cuba’s Attorney General’s workplace mentioned Saturday.
In a word printed within the island’s communist social gathering newspaper, Granma, prosecutors mentioned they have been investigating circumstances of arson and vandalism of state property, streets closures and “insults to officials and forces of order.”
Additionally, mother and father of minors who participate within the protests may face fees of kid endangerment, in keeping with the word.
Anti-government protests are normally rapidly damaged up by police in Cuba, however after Hurricane Ian worsened the island’s essential energy shortages, Cubans throughout the island have taken to the streets to complain.
After forming within the Southern Caribbean Sea, Hurricane Ian made landfall late final month as a Category 3 hurricane in Cuba simply southwest of La Coloma within the western Pinar del Rio province.
The hurricane’s fierce winds and rain left not less than three folks lifeless, state media mentioned, and knocked out energy to your complete island.
Two of the deaths occurred in Pinar del Rio, the place a girl died after a wall collapsed on her and a person died after his roof fell on him, state media mentioned.
The state-run National Electric System turned off energy in Havana to keep away from electrocutions, deaths and property injury till the climate improved. But the nationwide blackouts have been attributable to the storm and weren’t deliberate.
The storm exacerbated an financial disaster that has been gripping Cuba, resulting in shortages of meals, gas and drugs. Blackouts throughout the island have been common all summer time, which led to uncommon scattered protests towards the federal government. Those protests picked up after the hurricane made life tougher for Cubans already struggling.
Often at evening, protestors in cities and cities have banged on pots and pans, indignant at authorities energy cuts. Some protestors have known as for electrical service to be restored whereas others have demanded that Cuban leaders step down.
The latest protests haven’t reached the dimensions as these of July 2021, when hundreds of Cubans took to the streets demanding change, within the largest anti-government demonstrations for the reason that 1959 revolution.
After days of energy cuts by the federal government final 12 months, residents within the small metropolis of San Antonio de los Baños ran out of endurance. On July 11, 2021, they took to the streets in a second of uncommon public dissent on the island.
Cubans throughout the nation have been capable of stay stream and consider in actual time the unfolding protests in San Antonio de los Baños – and take part.
Almost instantly hundreds of different Cubans have been demonstrating. Some complained the dearth of meals and medicines, others denounced high-ranking officers and known as for better civil liberties. The unprecedented protests unfold to small cities and cities.
While Cuban officers have lengthy blamed US sanctions for the island’s woes, protestors throughout the summer time of 2021 raged squarely towards their very own authorities for his or her worsening dwelling situations.
In a speech on state-run TV, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed the island’s financial issues on US sanctions, mentioned the protests have been the results of a subversion marketing campaign directed from overseas and known as on Cubans loyal to the revolution to take again the streets. The state cracked down.
Cuban prosecutors mentioned this summer time that near 500 folks have been convicted and sentenced in reference to the protests, within the largest mass trials on the island in a long time. Prison phrases ranged between 4 and 30 years for crimes that included sedition.