Cuba Suffers Third Nationwide Blackout Since January

Cuba suffered its third nationwide power outage since January after the national electricity system disconnected on Monday. The state electricity company said there had been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system and that it was investigating the causes.

The island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the U.S. imposed an oil blockade in January. Since then, Washington has allowed only one oil tanker, from Russia, to dock in Cuba. The blockade, together with sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies that do business with it, has reduced fuel available for generators that support the national grid.

“Living like this is agony,” said Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old self-employed social media community manager. Font said her Havana neighbourhood has been surviving on just three or four hours of power a day. A young software programmer working for a tourism startup in another neighbourhood said the blackout was worse because residents never know when electricity will return.

The state has imposed increasingly drastic power cuts across the country, lasting over 24 hours in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas, in an attempt to conserve fuel.

Power outages have been a feature of life for years on the island, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of ageing Soviet-era plants, is in poor condition. The pace of blackouts has accelerated since the fuel blockade began. The government has invested heavily in solar energy, which now accounts for 10% of the energy mix.

Food, drinking water and medicine are in increasingly short supply, prompting the UN to warn of a humanitarian emergency. The blackout is the eighth on the island of 9.6 million people since late 2024.