Cuba announced Tuesday that it had reconnected its national electrical grid after a nationwide power outage that began Sunday night, the sixth general blackout on the island this year. The failure struck amid a severe energy crisis and an oil blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States.
The state electric company UNE said late in the morning that the national electric system had been restored following a generalized outage that lasted a day and a half and plunged the country into darkness, including the capital, Havana. Large areas of the country nonetheless remained without power.
In Havana, only 42% of the city had electricity by midday Tuesday, according to UNE.
Frustration mounts among Cubans
Authorities made a major effort to restore the grid, but the repeated failures have frustrated Cubans, who have now lived through six nationwide blackouts this year on top of near-constant local power cuts.
Carlos García, a 57-year-old electric tricycle driver, said this was the new normal: the system collapses, gets reconnected, then collapses again, but either way there is almost never electricity, even when the grid is not down. He said that for him, nothing changes.
Cuba, home to 9.4 million people, has been mired in a severe economic crisis for years and is struggling to keep the lights on because of aging infrastructure and the energy blockade imposed by Washington.
Most Cubans have electricity for only a few hours a day at most, making daily life extremely difficult. Every time the power goes out, everything stops, from water pumps to ceiling fans.
On Monday night, Old Havana was plunged into total darkness. Residents went out onto their balconies or leaned out of windows, banging pots and pans to express their anger.
Cuba blames the US blockade
Cuba's Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, blamed Washington for the crisis on Tuesday. He wrote on the platform X that the grid's failures were direct consequences of what he called the genocidal US blockade against Cuba.
The United States, for its part, says the crisis stems from economic mismanagement by Cuba's communist government.
The seven thermoelectric plants that form the backbone of Cuba's national grid are more than 40 years old and break down frequently.
Blackouts have increased since January, when Washington imposed an oil blockade on the island that has complicated fuel supplies to those plants and to backup generators.
Tension between Washington and Havana
Relations between the United States and Cuba have been tense since the start of the year, particularly after Washington's arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an ally of the Cuban government.
