“Eenergy Emergency", "Schools closed, Public transport Ground" Blackouts lasting up to 20 hour in Communist Cuba

In Cuba there is an “energy emergency, with blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day in some provinces. Cuba was scrambling to restore power yesterday after a breakdown at the island's largest power plant caused a nationwide blackout. 

The capital, Havana, came to a standstill as schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and traffic lights stopped working. Schools across the country remain closed until Monday. Hospitals and other essential facilities, powered by generators, will remain open, officials in Havana said.

For three months, Cubans have been battling chronic blackouts that are becoming longer and more frequent. The national energy shortfall has hovered around 30 percent, but on Thursday it rose to 50 percent of the island's needs, sparking widespread frustration and anger. This prompted Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to declare an "energy emergency" on Thursday. The government suspended all non-essential public services on Thursday to prioritize power supply to households.

President Miguel Diaz-Canal X said Friday that the government "will not rest" until the lights are back on. He blamed Cuba's difficulties in acquiring fuel for its power plants on the tightening of a six-decade-long US trade embargo under former President Donald Trump.

Lázaro Guerra, head of power supply at the Energy Ministry, said efforts to restore power to 11 million residents of communist Cuba are in their early stages. Guerra previously told state media that the electricity system was disrupted by the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Gutierrez power plant, the largest of the island's eight coal-fired power plants.

To power the grid, Cuba has leased seven floating power plants from Turkish companies and added several small diesel generators. In July 2021, massive power blackouts sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public outrage. The rest of this is the current succession.

While authorities mainly blame the US sanctions, the island is also feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic hitting its crucial tourism sector and poor economic management. 

Cuba is now in its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and water plagued the country, with many Cubans fleeing. U.S. officials say more than 700,000 people entered the United States between January 2022 and August 2024.