Protesters Set Fire to Communist Party Office in Cuba Amid Severe Power Outages

Anti-government protesters in Cuba attacked and set fire to a Communist Party office on Saturday, March 14, 2026, in a rare outbreak of public unrest driven by chronic power outages. The incident took place in San Antonio de los Baños, a town in the Artemisa Province located approximately 26 kilometers from Havana. Protesters threw objects at the building and set it ablaze, according to a state-run newspaper cited by Reuters. The Cuban government responded by deploying Boinas Negras, or Black Berets, special forces units, to the scene. The attack on a party headquarters represented an unusually direct challenge to the authority of the one-party state.

The immediate trigger for the unrest was the population's frustration over frequent and prolonged electricity blackouts that have severely affected daily life across Cuba. Reuters reported the protests as a rare riot, reflecting how uncommon open confrontations of this scale have become in Cuba in recent years. The power crisis has deepened public anger at a time of broader economic hardship on the island. According to Reuters, blackouts have been exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade, though the Cuban government and U.S. officials frame the energy situation differently. No confirmed information is available on casualties or the number of arrests made in connection with the March 14 events.

San Antonio de los Baños holds particular significance in the history of Cuban dissent. In July 2021, the town was the starting point of the largest anti-government protests Cuba had seen in decades, which rapidly spread across the island. Those protests were also driven in large part by economic grievances, shortages, and frustration with the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuba has been governed by the Communist Party as the sole legal political party since the 1959 revolution. Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has served as President of Cuba since 2019 and as First Secretary of the Communist Party since 2021.

The recurrence of unrest in San Antonio de los Baños underscored the persistence of the underlying grievances that have fueled Cuban discontent since at least 2021. Miguel Díaz-Canel, who holds both the presidency and the top party post, has not issued a public statement on the March 14 incident according to available sources. The deployment of special forces indicated that authorities treated the attack as a serious security matter requiring an immediate and forceful response. The Artemisa Province incident was described by multiple international outlets, including Reuters, ANSA, and El País, as a rare and significant event given the Cuban government's tight control over public demonstrations. No confirmed information is available on whether similar incidents occurred elsewhere in Cuba on the same date.