Islandwide blackout hits Cuba as its fuel reserve dwindles and aging grid crumbles
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- An islandwide blackout plunged Cuba’s nearly 10 million residents into darkness Monday, exposing a crumbling power grid and dwindling fuel reserves as officials raced to restore electricity.
- The outage comes amid a deepening fuel crisis, following threatened U.S. tariffs, that has halted public transit, canceled tens of thousands of surgeries and forced prolonged, rolling blackouts.
- Cuban leaders blame a U.S. “energy blockade” for the crisis, while residents describe life without power, water or gas as shipments dry up.
HAVANA — An islandwide blackout hit Cuba on Monday as the country’s fuel reserves dwindle and its electric grid continues to crumble.
The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported by the state-run Electric Union, which said on X that the cause is under investigation. The Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote on X that it has activated protocols to restore electricity.
Fuel has been running out across Cuba since January, when President Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island, deepening the island’s ongoing economic and financial crisis. Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have canceled tens of thousands of surgeries.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said microsystems were already operating throughout Cuba a couple of hours after the outage: “Vital services continue to be protected, amidst this complex situation exacerbated by the energy blockade we face.”
Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of trying to “incite social unrest by strangling Cuba’s fuel supply.”
“The actions of electrical workers in the midst of a genocidal energy blockade are heroic,” he wrote on X.
The outage sparked concern across Havana, where 36-year-old Lina May wondered when the power would come back on so she could cook some rice.
“I just told my dad that we have to buy charcoal because otherwise we won’t eat and we’ll starve,” she said.
Richard Valdés, 40, said the outage is just the latest hit of many. “We’re without power again,” he said. “Now we have no water, no gas, nothing until they restore it.”
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs. The 730,000 barrels of oil delivered by a Russian tanker in late March ran out by the end of April.
The government also has been rationing power with intentional outages that can stretch to more than 24 consecutive hours.
A blackout in mid-May affected the island’s eastern provinces, while a blackout in mid-March struck the entire island.
Like many Cubans, Mario Pedroso, a 33-year-old Havana resident, was resigned about Monday’s total blackout.
“Oil hasn’t come in here for a while, and we have no way to solve the problem,” he said. “We have to resist, as we Cubans say. That’s all.”
Durán writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.
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