The fire that left thousands without light in Güira de Mamena exposes «urgency of a change» in Cuba

The fire in an electrical substation in Güira de Mamena, Artemisa, which left thousands of people without electricity on Saturday night, once again confirmed the disability and lack of will of the regime to guarantee the population the indispensable living conditions, highlighting the need for a radical change of the system, Martí News said activists.

«The explosion was the result of several years of negligence, of abandonment, of carelessness. A substation that is outdoors, taking the serene of the night, the sun, rain, plus the lack of maintenance. That is, one thing after another was what led to that today we are half of the people without electric light,» said Henry Betancourt, known in the networks as «King fugitive.»

The dislike of the lack of electricity has been revealed in the protests that occurred from 2022 to date, the most recent in Nuevitas, Camagüey and Centro Habana, in the national capital.

«The popular discontent is enormous and this is an affected structure for years by a dictatorship that they have benefited from them, and not to benefit the people,» Betancourt said.

In that sense, Marta Domínguez, mother of the political prisoner Jorge Bello, stressed that the obsolete electrical infrastructure, the breaks in thermoelectric plants and the shortage of fuel due to the lack of currencies to import it aggravate the daily difficulties of millions of Cubans.

«The current takes it away at any time, you cannot buy a chicken package because you are rotting. The current is day and night. There are people who are suffering with the amount of mosquitoes, of hexes in this town. Horrible heats, the children cry. The children’s milk breaks up even in the wineries,» he said.

«Public health, on the floor; the lack of hygiene, large; there are no ambulances, there are no funeral cars, there are no medications. The only ones who live well are the leaders. The people are dying slowly. It is already time for Cuba to be free, that it takes a path,» he insisted.

«Every time a transformer is broken, there is no to replace it, and then we are up to a week or 15 days without current,» said Domínguez, highlighting that the lack of electric fluid prevents primordial activities such as pumping water and cooking, and forces people to use coal or firewood.

Although the leaders try to control the collapse, implementing rotating blackouts, the population demands other solutions.

«That was already quite deteriorated. He has been there for more than 70 years and, as far as I know, they have never given him or maintenance,» said Yuleidis López, a resident in the area impacted by the blackout left by the incident.

«The transformer that exploded had been releasing oil for 15 days.

López added that local leaders are hurrying in remedying damage because they are thousands of people without electricity.

Block 5 of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant (Renté), in Santiago de Cuba, which had begun to generate energy last week, after almost a year in general maintenance, suffered a breakdown on Saturday.

The regime cannot compose the electrical system due to the chronic lack of investment and maintenance in an aging infrastructure. To this, the difficulties of importing fuel for not having foreign currencies or financing.

«For me it is the beginning of many things that will happen in a country in decay, that what we are is living between debris, but the solution is in the hands of the people,» King fugitive stressed.