By love-89.com Cuba has been plunged into a nationwide blackout since October 18, leaving streets shrouded in darkness at night, with only a few isolated light sources illuminating the roads. The Cuban Ministry of Energy reported that a failure at the country’s largest power plant, the Antonio Guiteras facility, triggered the nationwide power outage, affecting over 10 million people. Utility workers are currently working to restore power, but it remains unclear when electricity will be fully restored, leading to a significant economic paralysis.
Prior to the nationwide blackout, many provinces in Cuba had already been experiencing daily power cuts lasting up to 20 hours for several weeks. In response, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero declared a “state of energy emergency” on October 17 and suspended all non-essential services that incur energy costs. This included halting weekend classes in schools and cultural activities, as well as ordering the closure of bars, nightclubs, and other non-essential businesses. Additionally, non-essential enterprises were instructed to cease operations, and non-essential government services were suspended to ensure a minimum level of electrical service.
Business activities in the capital, Havana, came to a near standstill just days before the blackout. A Brazilian tourist recounted their experience, saying, “We went to a restaurant, but they had no food because there was no electricity, and now we can’t even go online.” An 80-year-old resident, Eloy Fon, remarked, “This is insane. It shows the fragility of our power system… we have no reserves, we can only take it one day at a time.”
The national grid operator, UNE, expressed hope to restart at least five oil generators the following night to restore power to more areas.
Some scholars pointed out that the last major nationwide blackout in Cuba occurred in 2022, attributed to hurricane damage. Just hours before this recent outage, Marrero cited ongoing blackouts as a result of storms damaging infrastructure, but he also emphasized that fuel shortages were the most critical factor behind the unstable power supply.
The Cuban government further blamed a long-standing trade embargo from the United States and sanctions implemented by the Trump administration for making it difficult for Cuba to obtain the fuel and parts necessary to operate power plants. Venezuela, Cuba’s largest oil supplier, has also reduced oil exports to Cuba this year.