Second Night of Pot-Banging Protests Escalates in Havana Over Blackouts

Late Friday night, March 6, residents across Havana and in Jagüey Grande took to streets and balconies, banging pots and chanting "We don't want light, we want freedom," social-media videos and reporting show. Journalist Mario J. Pentón shared footage from Marianao, Centro Habana, Alamar, Lawton and La Lisa and, CiberCuba reported, verified a Jagüey Grande protest by video call with local residents after a near-total collapse of the National Electric System left much of the country without power.

CiberCuba’s March 7 report said "pots and pans protest began to be reported on the night of this Friday in various areas of Cuba, especially in Havana and in the municipality of Jagüey Grande, in the province of Matanzas, amid prolonged blackouts affecting a large part of the country." Videos circulated show neighbors banging pots from homes or on the streets while shouts of "freedom" and other expressions of discontent can be heard amid the darkness caused by outages.

This wave in early March follows earlier unrest in December. Havana Times, republishing El Toque reporting by Mayli Estevez, documented a major pot-banging wave on the night of December 8 and the early morning of December 9, 2025, when power cuts in some areas exceeded 12 hours and residents lit bonfires and demanded basic services. That December coverage included a video quote, "We want electric power, dammit!" and reported that on December 6 people in the El Marañon neighborhood of Las Tunas had only received 25 minutes of electricity per day for more than a week.

The energy crisis has concrete technical pressures ahead: Havana Times noted that the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the country’s largest generating block, was scheduled for maintenance in early 2026, a development the piece warned could impose new strains on an already fragile grid. CiberCuba described the recent outage as a "near total collapse of the National Electric System, last Wednesday," a collapse that, the outlet reported, necessitated "the initiation of a complex process to restore the service."

Beyond outages, reporters and monitors point to wider stressors. Havana Times cited official acknowledgment of 44 deaths from an arbovirus epidemic and noted that more than 200 stores sell essential goods in dollars, a currency available to only a minority of Cubans. The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded numerous protests in November driven by demands related to the arbovirus epidemic, electricity, food and civil liberties, signaling that the pot-banging fits into a pattern of recurring unrest.

CiberCuba added a political dimension, reporting that "some activists and sectors of the exile community have encouraged Cubans on the island to express themselves" to pressure for political change. As of the March 7 report, CiberCuba said, "So far, the authorities of the Cuban totalitarian regime have not made any public statements regarding the reports of protests" recorded that Friday night. Havana Times noted authorities continue to describe the energy situation as "very complex."

With maintenance at major plants and restoration efforts underway, the immediate question is how long the complex recovery will take and whether nightly cacerolazos will spread to additional neighborhoods beyond Jesús María, Centro Habana and Jagüey Grande. Journalists on the ground have preserved video evidence of the second consecutive night of pot-banging; the coming days will show whether this escalation forces clearer public responses from state energy managers or further mobilization in the streets.