More than 10 million Cubans were left without power this Saturday (21), after the communist island’s national electrical grid collapsed for the second time in a week. The blackout occurs amid the oil blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States, following the deposition of the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, on January 3. Without fuel from Venezuela, the Cuban regime struggles to maintain its internal energy supply, which depends on degraded infrastructure.
This is the third major power outage on the Caribbean island in March, and the seventh recorded in the last 18 months. On the 4th, a failure in a thermoelectric plant knocked out most of the Cuban electrical system. Last Monday (16), the network went offline for reasons that were not identified.
“At 6:32 pm there was a total shutdown of the National Electric Power System. We will continue to provide updates,” state-owned Union Electrica reported on Saturday in a Facebook post.
This Sunday (22), the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines was working to try to reestablish electrical supply for vital services, which include hospitals, food distribution and water supply.
Energy system in crisis
In recent weeks, American President Donald Trump has been stating that the Cuban regime could soon fall, thanks to economic deterioration and increasing internal difficulties. A sensitive point in this sense would be the crisis worsened precisely by restrictions in the supply of oil and structural problems in the energy system.
“I believe I will have the honor of taking Cuba. It’s a great honor. To take Cuba in some way. To free it. I think I can do whatever I want with it, to tell you the truth,” Trump said Monday.
Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel recently confirmed that representatives from Havana are holding talks with the United States, in an attempt to resolve differences through dialogue.
A report published by the newspaper The New York Timeslast week, however, stated that the Trump administration conditions negotiations between the countries on Díaz-Canel’s departure from power.
