Cuba has suffered a new widespread power outage since Friday, the seventh since the start of the year against a backdrop of a serious fuel shortage in the communist island, under pressure from Washington.
“A total disconnection of the electricity system has occurred,” said the Ministry of Energy and Mines on X. The national electricity company UNE then mentioned a breakdown “on the transmission lines”, combined with “unstable weather conditions”.
This is the seventh national outage since the start of the year and the twelfth since the end of 2024.
In Havana, only around 5% of the population was supplied with electricity Friday afternoon, according to the national company.
“It’s one thing after another: no water, no gas for cooking, no electricity. Frankly, I don’t know how we haven’t lost our minds yet,” Lidia Fernandez, a 36-year-old teacher who was finishing her day at a primary school, told AFP in exasperation.
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The island of 9.4 million inhabitants suffers constant power cuts due to the obsolete state of its thermal power plants.
These cuts have worsened since January, when Washington imposed an oil blockade on the island that complicates the supply of fuel to its power plants and emergency generators.
In recent weeks, outages have lasted more than 30 hours in the capital, while in other provinces they exceed 60 consecutive hours.
These outages also affect the water supply and the telephone network throughout the country.
“At home, we are at 28 hours of outage. I thought that maybe they would restore the electricity at least for a few hours, but now, with this disconnection, I think we will not have power for several days,” despairs Francisco Rodriguez, a 78-year-old retiree.
Economic crisis
Accustomed to a daily life marked by power cuts, Zunilda Garcia, a 60-year-old retiree, says she was not surprised by the announcement of a new nationwide blackout. She went out to her door to charge a small lamp with solar energy so she could use it after dark.
“You have to wait and stay calm,” she sighs. “We must not lose hope.”
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Relations between the United States and Cuba have become considerably strained since the start of the year, particularly after Washington’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of the Cuban government.
This new outage comes in the midst of an economic crisis, the worst the country has seen in decades.
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According to an independent study published this week by the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue (CCRD), some seven out of 10 Cubans do not have sufficient income to meet their basic needs, particularly food.
Some 6.45 million people, or 66% of the population, live in poverty – compared to 45% in mid-2025, according to this same work, which attributes this development mainly to the rise in food prices.
With AFP
