| Maleconazo | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Special Period | |||
 Protesters in the streets | |||
| Date | 5 August 1994 | ||
| Location | |||
| Goals |
| ||
| Methods | Vandalism Looting | ||
| Resulted in | Protests suppressed by Cuban government | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
No centralized leadership | |||
The Maleconazo was a protest on 5 August 1994, in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets around the Malecón in Havana to demand freedom and express frustration with the government.[1] Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba fell into a crippling economic crisis that had many citizens looking to flee the island.[2][3] On the day of the protest, the Cuban police blocked people from boarding tugboats leaving Havana, prompting thousands of citizens to storm the streets in the largest anti-government demonstration Cuba had seen since the Cuban Revolution.[3] In the following weeks, President Fidel Castro quelled the frustration by opening the doors of the country and allowing Cubans to leave, which had a significant impact on Cuba's relationship with the United States moving forward.[4]
- ^ Cueto, Jose Carlos (12 July 2021). "Protests in Cuba: what was the historic "Maleconazo" of 1994 and how it compares with the massive mobilizations this Sunday". BBC. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ^ Restakis, John (July–August 2012). "What would Che say?". New Internationalist. 454: 36–38 – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ a b Vicente, Rozzmery Palenzuela (22 July 2021). "Cubans took to the streets in 1994, too". The Washington Post.
- ^ Batista, Carlos (12 July 2021). "Protestas en Cuba evocan "El Maleconazo", 27 años después". AFP International Text Wire in Spanish. ProQuest 2550550707.