A crowd swarms the steps of a small state-run market on the outskirts of Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city, sweating and shouting, jostling for a chance at a once-monthly ration of chicken. Photo: Internet Source

A pound bag of thighs is going for a bargain 20 pesos – about a nickel at the black-market exchange rate – but furor devolves to chaos as word spreads there may not be enough for everyone.

And that’s when the lights go out.

“This is life here,” said Mauri Macias, a 39-year-old chef with two children who spoke with Reuters as he waited his turn to buy a handful of the government-subsidized poultry. “You live without being able to make plans.”

The episode last Wednesday in Santiago – the site earlier this month of a rare public protest – provides a telling snapshot of the challenge facing Cuba’s government: When the power fails, tensions – even in areas sympathetic to Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist Revolution – begin to soar.

Reuters interviewed more than two dozen residents and local officials in the Santiago de Cuba neighborhoods of Veguita del Galo, Jose Marti, Micro 9 and Abel Santamaria. They told of their frustration at food shortages and electricity outages that sometimes top 10 hours daily.

“Living without electricity is primitive,” said Yoni Mena, a 34-year-old who runs a vegetable stand in Abel Santamaria, a hillside neighborhood.

“The mosquitoes, the heat, sometimes there is no water. People are losing their minds. And that leads to other problems, like violence.”

Several hundred protesters gathered on March 17 in Santiago’s Carretera del Morro Park, chanting “power and food,” according to first-hand accounts from local residents. Social media videos showed a smaller group shouting “freedom” as local Communist Party leader Beatriz Johnson prepared to speak with the crowd from a rooftop.

Both the government and observers characterized the protests as largely peaceful.

The Cuban government, once reticent to acknowledge protests, now calls for dialogue and has moved quickly to attend to grievances in areas where they have flared.

In Santiago de Cuba, local officials and residents said the government has begun to distribute subsidized rations, including chicken, rice, sugar and milk.

Power supply also became much more regular in the week following the protests, according to residents and Reuters observations.