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In recent weeks, some of the blackouts have lasted more than 30 hours in Havana, and for several days in other parts of the island nation. (EPA Images pic)
\nHAVANA: Havana and other parts of western Cuba were plunged into darkness Saturday due to the country\u2019s latest power grid failure, the state-run electric company announced.<\/p>\n
Five of 15 provinces had no power due to a \u201cpartial collapse\u201d of the electricity grid at 6.07 pm, Cuba\u2019s UNE said on X.<\/p>\n
Cuba is reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades \u2014 one made worse by the fuel blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump in January as part of a pressure campaign aimed at ending six decades of communist rule.<\/p>\n
UNE says the fuel shortages have made the national grid more susceptible to outages and made the use of emergency generators \u2014 which typically run on diesel fuel \u2014 all but impossible.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, some of the blackouts have lasted more than 30 hours in Havana, and for several days in other parts of the island nation, which has a population of 9.4 million people.<\/p>\n
Since the start of 2026, Cuba has experienced five nationwide blackouts, three of them in July within a period of 10 days. Since late 2024, there have been 10 such total power outages.<\/p>\n
Cubans are not shy about admitting that they are increasingly weary of the constant disruptions to daily life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live practically like fireflies here \u2014 in the dark all the time. You never know when you\u2019ll have power; it\u2019s our sad reality,\u201d Julian Gonzalez, a 72-year-old carpenter, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Like many Havana residents who live near the Malecon, a coastal esplanade and seawall in the capital, Gonzalez was out trying to catch a bit of air.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better than sitting at home feeling bitter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Havana blames Washington\u2019s punitive measures for the dire state of its electricity grid, while the US says the fault lies with Cuba\u2019s government and its mismanagement of the economy.<\/p>\n
The seven thermal power plants that form the national grid\u2019s backbone have all been in operation for more than 40 years, and are in various states of disrepair.<\/p>\n
Relations between Washington and Havana have been tense since the start of the year, especially since US forces snatched Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from Caracas in early January and brought him to the US to face federal charges.<\/p>\n
Maduro had long been a staunch ally of Cuba.<\/p>\n
Washington has authorized the arrival of only one Russian tanker \u2014 carrying 100,000 tons of crude \u2014 which came in March. Those reserves have since been exhausted.<\/p>\n
In addition to its oil blockade, the Trump administration has ramped up sanctions against Cuban state-owned businesses, prompting many foreign businesses to suspend operations in the country.<\/p>\n
The US has also indicted former president Raul Castro, brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, over the downing of two civilian planes three decades ago.<\/p>\n
In late June, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said \u201cno progress\u201d had been made in months of bilateral discussions.<\/p>\n
But under pressure from all of the US measures, Cuban lawmakers adopted a raft of free-market reforms aimed at rolling back the state\u2019s role in the economy and attracting investment in everything from banking to tourism and agriculture.<\/p>\n
And on Wednesday, Havana said it would open up major sectors such as gas stations, electricity generation, trash collection and pharmacies to private firms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent weeks, some of the blackouts have lasted more than 30 hours in Havana, and for several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21249],"tags":[28522,34884,159,5484,2580,40691],"class_list":["post-95581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national-grid","tag-blackout","tag-cuba","tag-electricity","tag-fuel","tag-national-grid","tag-us-blockade"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117024101917111786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}