HAVANA, Nov 10, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Cuba's government said Saturday it arrested an unspecified number of people who staged demonstrations when a hurricane left the island without power for the second time in weeks.

The prosecutors office said these people in Havana and the central provinces of Mayabeque and Ciego de Avila were being charged with assault, public disorder and property damage.

Hurricane Rafael knocked all power out on Wednesday after hitting the west of the Caribbean island of 10 million people, triggering a blackout that lasted two days.

The government says half of the people of Havana now have electricity again but much of the capital and the neighboring province Artemisa do not.

The hurricane came just two weeks after a power plant failure plunged the island into darkness for several days.

There were no reports of fatalities in the latest storm.

Cuba has been suffering hours-long power cuts for months -- a symbol of the island's worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, a key ally and financial backer, in the early 1990s.

The UN General Assembly last week renewed its long-standing call for the United States to lift its six-decade trade embargo on the communist island.