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Cuba alerts against 'public condition' as spread demonstrations emerge

Cuban authorities said late on Saturday they would not endure public condition as the island's emergency situation employees cleared debris and worked to bring back power to parts of western Cuba still in the dark 4 days after the passage of Typhoon Rafael.

Rafael blew down hundreds of transmission lines and poles across the western Cuba, knocking out power to the entire country of 10 million people and sparking scattered protests.

Cuba's top district attorney said it had actually pushed charges and preventively detained individuals in Havana, Mayabeque and Ciego de Avila provinces for assault, public condition and vandalism.

( Such criminal offenses) contrast with the selfless and supportive mindset of all those who, in current situations, are devoted to helping the country recover, the district attorney said in a declaration.

Actions performed in the territories to recuperate services need to be accompanied by a climate of order, discipline and regard for authorities.

The quick note included no specifics about the arrests or the criminal offenses devoted.

More than 85% of the capital Havana had actually seen power restored by Sunday early morning, Cuba's grid operator said. But some homeowners on social networks reported spread pot-banging in protest of continuing blackouts.

Artemisa and Pinar del Rio provinces, harder hit by Rafael, were still largely without power on Sunday.

Rolling blackouts are expected to continue throughout the nation, as Cuba's old oil-fired generation plants stop working to produce enough electrical power to fulfill demand.

Demonstrations in communist-run Cuba are extremely uncommon however have surfaced more frequently as tensions flare over hours-long day-to-day blackouts and shortages of water, fuel, food and medicine.

Although Cuba's 2019 constitution grants residents the right to demonstration, a law more particularly specifying that right has for years been stalled in the legislature, leaving those who require to the street in legal limbo.

Rights groups, the European Union and the United States critiqued Cuba's reaction to anti-government demonstrations on July 11, 2021 - the biggest because Fidel Castro's 1959 transformation - as heavy-handed and repressive.

(source: Reuters)