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Millions in Cuba were left without power on Friday as the country was plunged into yet another major blackout.<\/b><\/p>\n
The country’s entire electricity grid suffered “total disconnection” that triggered a nationwide outage, Cuba’s energy ministry said.<\/p>\n
Power was restored to some priority areas by late evening, including those near hospitals and water pumping stations in the capital Havana, grid operator UNE said.<\/p>\n
It is at least the sixth partial or total blackout to hit Cuba this year, where ageing electricity infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages have been placed under further strain by a US blockade on oil shipments to the communist-run nation.<\/p>\n
UNE said the outage started just before 14:00 local time on Friday (18:00 GMT) due to a transmission fault coupled with poor weather conditions in central Cuba.<\/p>\n
Protocols to begin the “gradual restoration” of power were activated, the operator’s national load dispatch director Felix Estrada said, with the process ongoing on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Cuba relies heavily on fuel imports, meaning tight US sanctions and an oil blockade since the start of the year have exacerbated existing shortages. <\/p>\n
Food and medicine have also become more scarce, with hospitals struggling to function normally and schools and government offices having to close.<\/p>\n
“Lately, it’s becoming a habit,” Havana resident Frank Lorenzo told news agency Reuters on Friday.<\/p>\n
“Before it happened less frequently – once a month\u2026 just yesterday we were 24 hours without electricity, they turned it on for just an hour and it went down again.”<\/p>\n
“It’s one thing after another: no water, no gas for cooking, no electricity,” 36-year-old schoolteacher Lidia Fernandez told news agency AFP. “Honestly, I don’t know how we haven’t gone crazy.”<\/p>\n
Francisco Rodriguez, 78, said his home had already gone without power for 28 hours on Friday and feared he would not have light “for several days”.<\/p>\n
The repeated blackouts have prompted rare protests in Cuba, where unauthorised demonstrations are illegal and those who defy the ban risk being jailed.<\/p>\n
Havana has blamed its fuel crisis on the Trump administration and denounced all of its sanctions – including a new round announced in August<\/a> – which are part of a wider pressure campaign against the Caribbean island’s leadership.<\/p>\n Cuba’s regional ally Venezuela was believed to have sent it around 35,000 barrels of oil a day – about half of its oil needs – until Venezuela’s own supplies were cut off following the US seizure of its President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January. <\/p>\n US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on countries shipping oil to Havana, and a number of such shipments have been seized by the US.<\/p>\n Washington meanwhile attributes Cuba’s energy crisis to poor internal management and has accused it of posing a “national security threat”. Trump has openly discussed toppling its leadership, including threatening a “friendly takeover” in March this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n