Diaz-Canel was due to speak on the popular news analysis TV show “Mesa Redonda” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, an urgent address to the island nation of 11.2 million about the diesel fuel shortages the country now faces as a result of ramped-up US economic sanctions. In his speech, Diaz-Canel advised citizens about the shortage, what the government was doing to ration services and ensure the smoothest running of the country, as well as best practices for ordinary Cubans to save electricity.
However, significantly fewer Cubans got the news than Havana hoped: that’s because just minutes before the show aired, Twitter systematically suspended the accounts of essentially every single popular media outlet on the island, including “Mesa Redonda,” as well as numerous prominent journalists and the Cuban Communist Party.
