Shouting "freedom" and "down with the dictatorship", thousands of Cubans joined street protests in cities and towns across the country on Sunday.
A spontaneous gathering of this scale is extremely rare in Cuba, where opposition to the government is stifled.
They were the largest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades.
What prompted the unrest?
Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis in 30 years with chronic shortages of electricity, food and medicine.
Tourism is a major engine of the economy but it has been paralysed by the pandemic.
Growing inflation is also a concern with estimates that prices could rise even further in the next few months.
Compounding the crisis, is the worsening coronavirus situation.
The island, which had kept the pandemic under control in 2020, has seen infections explode in recent weeks.
The country of 11 million people recently reported a new daily record of almost 7,000 infections and 47 deaths.
The surge has pushed some hospitals to the edge of collapse in a country that prides itself on its healthcare system.
A professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Melbourne, Adrian Hearn, says there are more historical aspects to the unrest.
"Since the 1990s people are gradually getting impatient with missing out on opportunities that they see others in the world accessing and either experiencing or being told about," he told SBS News.
"Life in the 1980s in Cuba when things were pretty good and the Soviet Union was subsidising a lot of the Cuban economy at that point," he told SBS news.
"Since the 1990s, things have been a lot more difficult. So that's the slow boil that for 30 years now is still a problem and people are frustrated about."
What has been the response to the protest?
At least 100 protesters, activists and independent journalists had been detained nationwide, according to exiled rights group Cubalex.
Jose Daniel, the leader of Cuba's largest opposition group, the Patriotic Union of Cuba, was arrested as he left home to join protests in Santiago de Cuba.
Internet shutdowns have also disrupted the movement.
Network monitoring company Kentik said it had observed the entire country go offline for less than 30 minutes at around 4pm on Sunday, followed by several hours of intermittent outages.
Since greater internet connectivity arrived in Cuba under the presidency of Raúl Castro, citizens have used social networks to express their dissatisfaction with the government, with Sunday's protests partly organised on social media.
Government supporters also rallied in support of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana, on July 11, 2021. Source: Getty Images
Amnesty International said it had received with alarm reports of "internet blackouts, arbitrary arrests (and) excessive use of force."
The United Nations said it was monitoring the protests and called for the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to be respected.
What does the Cuban government say?
During a four-hour long televised address, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel said a minority of counter-revolutionaries were fomenting unrest.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blamed US-financed mercenaries.
The Communist government says the tightening of decades-old US sanctions under former US President Donald Trump has exacerbated shortages of food and medicine, as well as power outages.
President Diaz-Canal said the government had been fighting to keep the economy functioning "in the face of a policy of economic asphyxiation intended to provoke a social uprising".
What does the US government say?
US President Joe Biden said the United States stood with the people of Cuba who were "bravely" asserting their right to peaceful protest.
"It would be a grievous mistake because it would show that they simply are not hearing the voices and will of the Cuban people," he told a news briefing.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Cuban officials should not blame the protests on US sanctions.
Cuban exiles rallies at Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana in support of protestors in Cuba on 11 July 2021. Source: AAP/Miami Herald
In Miami, home to a large community of Cuban Americans, hundreds turned out in Little Havana on Sunday to express solidarity and celebrate what they viewed as the beginning of the end.
How did we get here?
US-Cuba relations have been fraught for decades, but have been particularly tense since former president Donald Trump tightened sanctions.
Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, bilateral relations deteriorated substantially but were severed in 1961 during the Cold War.
The countries restored diplomatic relations in July 2015. Some US travel restrictions were lifted and access opened for the Cuban financial system with US banks.
But under former US President Donald Trump sanctions were tightened and American travel to Cuba was restricted again.
President Biden vowed during his campaign to ease some of these measures but has yet to do so, with the White House saying it was not among his top priorities.
What next?
On Twitter, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez implored the United States to "take action".
But it is unclear whether action will be taken as the Biden Administration's review of Cuba policy remains unfinished.
Professor Hearn says US intervention may act to unite Cubans.
"As I think about what could bring Cubans back onto the same page again, I wonder if the prospect of US intervention might be the thing that gets people back on the same page."
As to whether the Cuban government will step up its response to protesters, he says they will be treading with caution.
"I wonder if the military in Cuba is really trying to be very careful about how it proceeds in this, not least because the military in Cuba has a kind of economic stake at play here. It's very involved in the tourism industry for example."
