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HAVANA: Activists, journalists and relatives of jailed dissidents say they were briefly detained or prevented from leaving their homes by state security agents Tuesday on the anniversary of the “Maleconazo,” the largest protest Fidel Castro faced during his rule.
On August 5, 1994, hundreds of people took to the streets of Havana’s Malecon waterfront to protest, an event that triggered the rafter crisis during which many Cubans fled by sea to the United States.
The government attributed the protests to incitement by Radio Marti, a Washington-funded station that broadcasts news into Cuba.
Nearly five years after Castro’s death, historic protests shook the island on July 11, 2021, when thousands took to the streets, resulting in one death, dozens injured and hundreds arrested. Many protesters remain behind bars.
The government claims those marches were also orchestrated by Washington.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the “Maleconazo” anniversary was a reminder that “there will always be dark forces lurking against a genuine Revolution in difficult moments,” posting a photograph on X of Castro confronting protesters in 1994.
Tuesday saw “surveillance, house arrests, arbitrary detention, and selective Internet shutdowns,” according to Cubalex, a Miami-based NGO.
Manuel Cuesta Morua, a dissident who promotes democratic transition in Cuba, told AFP via WhatsApp that since early morning he had been “besieged by the police” in a “type of house arrest, without a court order.”
The government “activated its repressive apparatus” following the “police pattern” applied on sensitive dates, said Yoani Sanchez, director of independent newspaper 14ymedio.
She said her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, also a journalist for the outlet, “was detained for a couple of hours in Havana.”
Independent journalist Camila Acosta told AFP that a state security officer had been stationed at the entrance of her house early in the morning.
Among others in similar situations reported by Cubalex were representatives of the Ladies in White rights group and the father of a young man imprisoned for participating in the July 2021 protests.

PARIS: A fast-moving wildfire in a Mediterranean region of France near the Spanish border has left one person dead, several others injured and was still spreading Wednesday after damaging a swath of land as big as Paris overnight, authorities said.
About 1,500 firefighters worked overnight to contain the blaze, which broke out Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region. It remained ‘’very active” on Wednesday and weather conditions were unfavorable, the local administration said in a statement.
One person died in their home and nine others were injured, and at least one person was missing, the statement said.
It said the fire had spread for 12 hours over 11,000 hectares of land, which is roughly equivalent to the size of the French capital. That makes it the biggest wildfire in France so far this summer.
Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.