Independent organizations warn of humanitarian crisis in Cuba after general blackout

Independent organizations and observatories have denounced the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Cuba, following the total collapse of the national energy system on October 18.

According to the statement, there are areas that have been without service for more than 70 consecutive hours.

“We have seen in Cuba the total collapse of essential services for human survival,” says the document, which warns of the impossibility of refrigerating medicines and food, as well as severe restrictions on the supply of drinking water.

The crisis, which had been brewing with a deficit of more than 50% in national electricity generation, reached its critical point last Friday and there are still areas without electricity.

“These conditions, combined with the government’s surveillance, control and criminalisation of any independent initiative that could articulate and assist the most disadvantaged, make survival conditions impossible,” said the signatory organisations.

The document demands that the Cuban regime collect information on the different impacts of this crisis and develop a plan of compensatory measures, especially for the most vulnerable groups: “elderly people, children, women, people with disabilities, people with chronic illnesses and the population deprived of liberty.”

The organizations also demand that independent civil society be allowed to participate in emergency actions and humanitarian aid “without being criminalized,” as well as respect for the right to peaceful protest in the midst of this unprecedented crisis.

The fifteen organizations that signed the press release are Food Monitor Program, Cuido60-Observatory of Aging, Care and Rights, Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (OGAT), Cubalex, Virtual Museum of Memory against Gender-based Violence, Cuban Youth Dialogue Table, Citizenship and Freedom, 4Métrica Foundation, Cuban Women’s Network, Justice 11J, Cuban Prison Documentation Center, Civil Rights Defenders, Museum of Dissidence in Cuba, Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

Despite the slow restoration of power, several areas of the island remain without electricity, especially in eastern Cuba, where Hurricane Oscar passed.

@ADNCuba/ADNAmerica

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