Communications in Cuba are down, ‘We don’t know exactly what’s going on there’

In Cuba, people took to the streets in dozens of cities on Sunday evening; Now the police can be seen mainly on the streets of the communist country. It was the largest anti-government protest in decades. Demonstrators blamed the regime for the economic crisis and poverty in Cuba.

Much is unclear about the current situation. “There is no longer any communication in Cuba,” says Edwin Copeman, journalist and author of the book. Havana ripples. “Many communication channels are down and we don’t know exactly what’s going on there.”

“The police and army are arresting people on a large scale. Well-known critics of the regime, who are active on social media, have been arrested now. We don’t know how many, but there must be hundreds.”

The pressure on the protesters appears to be paying off. According to Koopman, the demonstrations took place spontaneously and there was no leader with a clear goal.

Difficulty explaining

“In this respect, such a system is very easy,” he says of Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government. “Make sure they don’t communicate, you shut down the internet and arrest people and then people get anxious.”

So Koopman thinks he will be less worried in the coming days, but stresses that developments are difficult to explain. “In the countryside, for example, you can film whatever you want, but if there’s no internet, you can’t share it either. You can just follow the situation through witness reports.”