Cuba suffers nationwide blackout leaving millions without power as oil blockade and failing grid deepen economic crisis.
Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, leaving around 10 million people without power, according to the country’s grid operator, as an oil blockade imposed by the United States continues to strain the island’s ageing energy system.
Grid operator UNE said it is investigating the cause of the outage, which marks the latest in a string of blackouts that have lasted hours or even days. The disruptions sparked a rare violent protest over the weekend in the communist run country.
Officials ruled out a major power plant failure but have yet to identify the root cause, pointing instead to a possible transmission issue.
Authorities said efforts are underway to restore electricity gradually by reconnecting small clusters of circuits, known as microsystems, a critical first step toward fully stabilising the grid.
The crisis has been exacerbated by tightening US pressure. Since the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Washington has intensified sanctions against Cuba’s main oil supplier.
US President Donald Trump has halted Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened tariffs on countries supplying oil to the island, further weakening its already outdated power infrastructure.
Cuba said on Friday it had entered talks with the United States in hopes of easing the situation, as Trump has repeatedly suggested the country is nearing collapse and may be open to negotiations.
Frequent outages have become a part of daily life for many Cubans, driven by fuel shortages and persistent structural failures in the grid.
“No, the news didn’t surprise me,” said Havana resident Dayana Machin, 26, adding that all Cubans were scrambling now to find alternatives to grid-provided electricity.
“We’re getting used to living like this.”
