Cuba tightens police presence as July 11 anniversary nears

Olive-green uniforms appeared around People’s Power offices, cafés, bars and the busiest streets in Regla as residents endured heat, water shortages and nearly 30 straight hours without electricity, turning a blackout into a protest trigger days before the July 11 anniversary. Residents said the presence felt noticeably heavier over the previous three days. Police patrols extended beyond Regla into other Havana neighborhoods.

The weekend pressure came after a transformer failure added to the outages, and people in Regla answered with protests and pot-banging once the darkness dragged on. The municipality had already been seeing recurring demonstrations for about a week, and some residents said they had gone 72 hours without electricity in a separate episode. On the Malecón, police gathered around a small group of young people swimming, and at least one person was detained.

The unrest spread beyond Regla. Street protests on June 20 and June 22 turned up in Centro Habana, Playa, San Miguel del Padrón and La Güinera, with burning trash, road blockades and banging pots and pans appearing in several places. Internet and mobile data outages hit parts of Centro Habana, Regla and other areas at the same time, cutting off some of the same streets where crowds were forming.

Cubalex documented at least 14 arrests in the capital tied to blackout protests since March 6, and some Havana circuits were seeing blackouts of 20 to 22 hours a day. Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in May that Cuba had no fuel oil or diesel reserves, while the United Nations has criticized U.S. fuel-related sanctions as harming rights including food, education, health and water and sanitation. The U.S. State Department said in July 2025 that more than 700 people remained imprisoned in connection with the July 11, 2021 protests.