{"id":661405,"date":"2026-03-17T06:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/661405\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:11:20","slug":"islandwide-blackout-hits-cuba-as-it-struggles-with-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/661405\/","title":{"rendered":"Islandwide blackout hits Cuba as it struggles with energy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAVANA (AP) \u2014 Officials in Cuba<\/a> reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a \u201ccomplete disconnection\u201d of the country\u2019s electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed. <\/p>\n

L\u00e1zaro Guerra, the ministry\u2019s electricity director, told state media late Monday that crews were trying to restart several thermoelectric plants, which are key to restoring power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be done gradually to avoid setbacks,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause systems, when very weak, are more susceptible to failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

As night fell, candles began to burn in some homes while the sounds of children playing and singing with their mother filled one dark house in Havana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to prepare a mattress for the girls here so that they can sleep here because we have no choice,\u201d said Yuneici Cecilia Riviaux, as she motioned to an open door. \u201cI don\u2019t have a rechargeable fan or a generator.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the third major blackout in Cuba over the past four months. <\/p>\n

Tom\u00e1s David Vel\u00e1zquez Felipe, a 61-year-old resident of Havana, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. \u201cWhat little we have to eat spoils,\u201d he said. \u201cOur people are too old to keep suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Monday night, state-owned media reported that crews had restored power to 5% of Havana\u2019s residents, representing some 42,000 customers, as well as several hospitals across the island. Officials said they would prioritize the communications sector next, all while warning that the small circuits restored so far could fail again.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to daily outages and an increase in islandwide blackouts. But the government also has blamed its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after U.S. President Donald Trump in January warned<\/a> of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The Trump administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump also has raised the possibility of a \u201cfriendly takeover of Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, he said he believes he\u2019ll have the \u201chonor of taking Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I could do anything I want with it,\u201d Trump said about Cuba, calling it a \u201cvery weakened nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is looking for Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel to leave power as the United States continues to negotiate with the Cuban government about the island nation\u2019s future, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of talks between Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n

Both spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive talks and did not offer any detail about who the administration might like to see come to power.<\/p>\n

They confirmed the Trump administration\u2019s desire to see D\u00edaz-Canel leave power days after the Cuban president publicly confirmed for the first time that his government has held talks with the Trump administration<\/a>. The administration\u2019s push for the ouster of D\u00edaz-Canel was first reported by The New York Times earlier Monday.<\/p>\n

Grinding blackouts<\/p>\n

William LeoGrande, a professor at American University who has tracked Cuba for years, said the country\u2019s energy grid hasn\u2019t been maintained properly and its infrastructure is \u201cway past its normal useful life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe technicians working on the grid are magicians to keep it running at all given the shape that it\u2019s in,\u201d LeoGrande said.<\/p>\n

LeoGrande said that if the island drastically reduces consumption and expands renewables, it can struggle along for a while without oil shipments. \u201cBut it would be constant misery for the general population, and eventually, the economy could collapse just completely and then you would have social chaos and probably mass migration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To ramp up solar power even faster than Cuba did last year, LeoGrande said other countries, principally China, would have to be willing to double or more their provision of such equipment.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel on Friday said the island had not received oil shipments in three months and was operating on solar power, natural gas and thermoelectric plants, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

Yaimisel S\u00e1nchez Pe\u00f1a, 48, said she was upset that the food she buys with money that her son in the U.S. sends keeps spoiling, adding that the outages also affect her 72-year-old mother: \u201cEvery day, she suffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes Vel\u00e1zquez, a 71-year-old Cuban resident, lamented yet another blackout. \u201cWe\u2019re here waiting to see what happens,\u201d she said, adding that she recently gave away part of a soup she made while it was still fresh so as not to throw it out. \u201cEverything goes bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A perfect storm of collapse\u2019<\/p>\n

A massive outage over a week ago<\/a> affected the island\u2019s west, leaving millions without power. Another major blackout affected western Cuba in early December. <\/p>\n

Critical oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then-president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

While Cuba produces 40% of its petroleum and has been generating its own power, it hasn\u2019t been sufficient to meet demand as its electric grid continues to crumble.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd on top of all that, the Cuban government doesn\u2019t have the hard currency to import spare parts or upgrade the plant or grid itself. It\u2019s just a perfect storm of collapse,\u201d LeoGrande said. <\/p>\n

He noted that the thermoelectric plants also have been using heavy oil, whose sulfur content is corroding the equipment.<\/p>\n

The deputy prime minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, \u00d3scar P\u00e9rez-Oliva Fraga, told reporters Monday that Cuba is open to trading with U.S. companies while noting the embargo\u2019s limitations.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s also implementing new measures aimed at boosting the island\u2019s economy. Among those is the possibility of allowing Cubans residing abroad to be partners or owners of private companies in the country and to be involved in large-scale projects, including those related to infrastructure, according to state media.<\/p>\n

He said those Cubans will be allowed to partner with Cuban private companies and establish ties with both state-owned and private Cuban entities.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez-Oliva added that the government also will grant land under usufruct for the development of certain projects.<\/p>\n

He said Cubans residing abroad also will be able to open foreign currency bank accounts in Cuban banks, which will facilitate transactions.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Coto reported from San Jos\u00e9, Costa Rica. Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAVANA (AP) \u2014 Officials in Cuba reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":661406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1613,57214,85353,69,10102,57,51,13790,1612,279873,109202,50,92550,80,7053,12041,279872,279874,52,25680,370,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-661405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-central-america","9":"tag-cuba","10":"tag-cuba-government","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-energy-industry","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-international-trade","16":"tag-latin-america","17":"tag-mercedes-velzquez","18":"tag-miguel-daz-canel","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nicolas-maduro","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-power-outages","23":"tag-recessions-and-depressions","24":"tag-scar-prez-oliva-fraga","25":"tag-toms-david","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-transportation-and-shipping","28":"tag-united-states-government","29":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116243037321124428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}