translated from Spanish: Cuba dawns calmly and without internet after a day of mass protests

Cuba dawned on Monday in apparent calm, without mobile internet service and with the uncertainty of whether the citizen protests against the government that erupted on Sunday throughout the country, which is going through its worst economic and health crisis in the last three decades, will continue. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel will appear today at 09.00 local time (13.00 GMT) on national television and radio networks with members of his government team.Internet service on mobile phones has been cut off since noon yesterday, which has made it difficult to know in real time the situation in the interior of the country and the development of the demonstrations. After the dozens of arrests that took place on Sunday, activists and opponents have denounced on social networks that several people arrested while participating in the protests remain missing, especially in Havana.During the night and early morning on social networks have multiplied the complaints with videos about repression and police violence in cities and towns of the island , facts that Efe for the moment has not been able to corroborate.Thousands of Cubans took to the streets yesterday to protest against the Government to the cry of “Freedom!” in an unprecedented day that resulted in hundreds of arrests and clashes after Díaz-Canel ordered on television his supporters to go out to face the demonstrators and defend the Revolution.In the late afternoon, another demonstration of support for the Government went through the streets of Havana to the cry of “I am Fidel!” , “Cuba yes, Yankees no” and “Down with the blockade,” referring to the embargo that the United States has maintained on the island for 60 years and to which the Cuban authorities attribute in large part the situation in the country. The United States “has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for subversion in our country and imposes a genocidal blockade, which is mainly responsible for economic deficiencies,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote today on Twitter. The White House National Security Adviser lacks the political and moral authority to talk about Cuba,” he added, referring to Washington’s call for the rights and integrity of protesters to be respected. The protests, the strongest that have occurred in Cuba since the so-called “maleconazo” of August 1994, are taking place with the country in the midst of a serious economic and health crisis, with the pandemic out of control and a severe shortage of food, medicine and other basic products, as well as long power cuts.

Original source in Spanish