By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, March 9 (Reuters) – A group of just over 20 Cuban university students staged a rare, hours-long protest at the University of Havana on Monday, angry over class disruptions amid a U.S. oil blockade that has contributed to a near collapse of Cuba’s electrical grid.
Students sat under a hot mid-morning sun, shading themselves with umbrellas while trading barbs with several of the university’s professors and administration staff, who arrived shortly after the “sit-in” began.
“None of us wanted to get up early today in the dark, make a thermos of coffee, and sit here in the sun,” said Anabel Oliva, a 20-year-old university student who spoke before the group. “But there was no other way.”
Students said officials had failed to take adequate measures to prevent major disruptions to classes as the United States has ratcheted up sanctions and pressure on the Caribbean island nation.
The United States in January cut off oil shipments from Venezuela, which further decimated an already failing electrical grid, starving it of fuel and forcing ripple effects on transportation, food supply and internet communications.
Cuba announced a series of measures in January, including distance learning as during the COVID-19 pandemic, that officials said would assure continuity for students of the island’s once-robust higher-education system.
Students said those measures were not enough, and opted to protest to ensure their voices were heard.
Jose Julian Diaz, a university professor and former student representative, told Reuters the extraordinary circumstances required dialogue.
“These kinds of scenarios are really rare,” he said in an interview. “I think we have to learn to have these discussions with students.”
University security initially prohibited the protesting students from sitting on the stone steps at the main entrance of the University of Havana, blocking the entrance with a long rope and a sign that read: “Do not pass, do not sit.”
VICE MINISTER INTERVENES, NO CONSEQUENCES FOR PROTESTERS
The students eventually walked up the steps and past the rope, however, prompting a rush of security guards who were eventually called off by Higher Education Vice Minister Modesto Ricardo Gomez.
The vice minister told reporters the students had raised legitimate concerns, and blamed the Trump administration’s tightening sanctions for the problems. He said there would be no repercussions for those who protested.
“There are no consequences whatsoever. They have a concern, and we are addressing it. It will always be like this,” Gomez said.
While the minister spoke to reporters, the students left the steps and entered the university with administration officials and teachers, declining requests for interviews.
The minister said the dialogue would continue inside the university.
One student, who did not give his name to a reporter but spoke before cameras, said there would be more protests if the issues were not resolved.
“We are willing to engage in dialogue if it is to represent our demands, but if dialogue, as has already happened, does not work, we will sit down here again.”
Protests of any kind in Communist-run Cuba are exceedingly rare. Cuba’s 2019 constitution grants citizens the right to protest, but a law more specifically defining that right is stalled in the legislature, leaving those who take to the street in legal limbo.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; additional reporting by Alien Fernandez; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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