Cuba experienced its third nationwide blackout since the start of the year on Monday, the state electricity company UNE confirmed. The outage, described as a 'total disconnection from the national electricity generation system', plunged the island of 9.6 million people into darkness.
The blackout is the eighth since late 2024 and comes as the country struggles with a severe fuel shortage exacerbated by a US oil blockade imposed in January. The blockade has severely limited fuel supplies for Cuba's ageing power plants, which are largely Soviet-era and in poor condition.
Residents described the hardship caused by the blackouts. 'Living like this is agony,' said Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old social media manager in Havana, where power has been limited to three or four hours a day. A young software programmer in another neighbourhood added: 'We have no wifi, no electricity, we can't work.'
Authorities have imposed increasingly lengthy power cuts, lasting over 24 hours in parts of Havana and up to 70 hours in rural areas, to conserve fuel. Since January, only one oil tanker from Russia has been allowed to dock in Cuba under the US blockade.
The fuel crisis, combined with sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies, has pushed the country closer to collapse, with shortages of food, water, and medicine prompting UN warnings of a humanitarian emergency. The government has invested in solar energy, but it still accounts for only 10% of the energy mix.
