Cuba faces nationwide blackout for second night in a row

Cliff Notes – Cuba faces nationwide blackout for second night in a row

• Millions in Cuba experienced extended power outages for a second consecutive night, with interruptions to internet and telephone services.
• President Miguel Diaz-Canel reported that efforts to restore electricity in major cities, including Havana and Santiago de Cuba, were unsuccessful.
• Persistent blackouts are attributed to fuel shortages and aging infrastructure, exacerbated by ongoing economic crises and tightened US sanctions.

Cuba faces nationwide blackout for second night in a row

Millions of people in Cuba remained without power for a second night in a row on Saturday as the island nation dealt with a major power outage.

The Associated Press reported that power went out in the evening and that internet and telephone services were intermittent.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media that authorities were “working intensely to restore stability” to the grid.

Efforts to restore power in Havana and in the island’s second-largest city Santiago de Cuba failed on Saturday, forcing the grid operator to begin again from scratch.

Meanwhile, most Cubans outside of Havana have for months lived with rolling blackouts that have sometimes lasted as long as 20 hours a day.

Cuba suffering from sanctions, economic downturn

Cuba’s state-owned utility, the Cuban Electricity Union, said on Saturday that its strategy was to create “microsystems” that will connect to each other gradually in order to restore electricity across the island.

Experts have attributed recent blackouts in Cuba primarily to fuel shortages and aging infrastructure.

Cuba is still reeling from an economic crisis sparked during the COVID-19 pandemic and also from tightened sanctions by the United States.

US President Donald Trump recently ratcheted up sanctions on the island’s communist government, promising to be “tough” towards the Caribbean nation.