Cubans have banged pots and shouted protests in neighborhoods of Havana still without electricity, three days after Hurricane Ian knocked out power to the island of 11 million people.
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Sweating in the dark on Thursday night and early Friday, some Havana residents resorted to pot-banging, a traditional method of expressing discontent in Latin America but one previously rarely employed in Cuba.
Hurricane Ian, now ploughing north along the southeast coast of the United States, on Tuesday brought Cuba's grid to collapse, flattened homes and obliterated agricultural fields.
The government has worked on repairs since then, and electric service was back in half of the capital by Friday afternoon.
Luis Antonio Torres, head of the country's ruling Communist Party in Havana, told state-run TV that utility workers had made significant progress.
"Havana today has more than 50 per cent of its grid recovered, and about 60 per cent of customers have electricity," Torres said.
By noon on Friday, scattered protests continued in Havana, but largely limited to areas where electricity was not yet back.
"I believe that protesting is a right, but only when those responsible are not doing their jobs," Torres said.
"Yesterday's protests, instead of helping, slowed down our mission."
Street protests in communist-run Cuba are very rare. On July 11, 2021, anti-government rallies rocked the island, the largest such demonstrations since former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Police arrested more than 1000 people, according to estimates from human rights groups, and hundreds of protesters remain in jail, official figures show.
A Reuters journalist confirmed pot-banging and small groups protesting peacefully on the street in several other areas of the city on Thursday evening and Friday morning. In Vedado, a more upscale neighbourhood, around 100 people gathered in front of a local Communist Party office late on Thursday.
Two uniformed government officials emerged, one with a loudspeaker, to explain efforts to restore power, but the crowd quickly shouted them down.
Food, fuel and medicine shortages, acute even before the storm, left many Cubans wondering where to turn as many businesses remained closed following the storm and basic supplies were hard to come by.
Reports on social media also showed small protests throughout Havana and some elsewhere in the country on Friday. Outside Havana, many regions remained without power, particularly on the western half of the island, which took a direct hit from Ian.
Australian Associated Press