Cuba Suffers Third Nationwide Blackout Since January

Cuba suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year 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 of 9.6 million people had already been facing frequent blackouts before the U.S. imposed an oil blockade in January.

Since January, Washington has allowed only one oil tanker, from Russia, to dock in Cuba. 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. Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old self-employed social media community manager, said her Havana neighborhood has been surviving on just three or four hours of power a day.

"Living like this is agony," Font said. A young software programmer working for a tourism startup said the blackout was worse because residents never know when electricity will return. "We have no wifi, no electricity, we can’t work," the programmer said.

Power outages have been a feature of life for years on the island, where the electricity generation system is composed mainly of ageing Soviet-era plants. The pace of blackouts has accelerated since the fuel blockade began, with authorities citing a lack of fuel to run the generators.

The government has invested heavily in solar energy, which now represents 10% of the energy mix. The blockade, coupled with sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies that do business with it, has left food, drinking water and medicine in increasingly short supply.

The UN has warned of a humanitarian emergency.