Maleconazo

Maleconazo
Part of the Special Period
Protesters in the streets
Date5 August 1994
Location
Goals
MethodsVandalism
Looting
Resulted inProtests suppressed by Cuban government
Parties
Protesters
Lead figures

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]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Restakis, John (July–August 2012). "What would Che say?". New Internationalist. 454: 36–38 – via EBSCOhost.
  3. ^ a b Vicente, Rozzmery Palenzuela (22 July 2021). "Cubans took to the streets in 1994, too". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ Batista, Carlos (12 July 2021). "Protestas en Cuba evocan "El Maleconazo", 27 años después". AFP International Text Wire in Spanish. ProQuest 2550550707.