Havana – millions of people in Cuba remained without energy on Saturday after a failure of the Nation’s electricity grid left the island in the dark the night before.
The mass blackout is the fourth in the last six months, since a severe economic crisis affects the Caribbean country. The Ministry of Energy and Mines, in a statement on social networks, attributed the last interruption to a failure in a substation in the suburbs of Havana, the capital.
Internet and telephone service were intermittent on Saturday night after energy came around 8 pm local time on Friday.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in his X account that the authorities are “working intensely to restore stability” to the energy system.
Lázaro Guerra, director of Electricity of the Ministry, said on national television that energy was already being generated to support vital services such as hospitals.
A declaration of the Cuban Electricity Union published on Saturday said that the strategy was to create “microsystems” that will connect to each other to gradually restore electricity throughout the country. Several of these were already operating in the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.
In Sancti Spíritus, the provincial energy company reported on its telegram channel that more than 200,000 clients in that area had electricity thanks to these microsystems.
Many Cuban families use electrical equipment to prepare their meals. The interruption could cause the food to defrost in refrigerators and possibly spoils due to the tropical climate of the island.
“When I was about to begin to cook and make some spaghetti, the power went out. “And now what?” Cecilia Duquenense, a 79 -year -old housewife who lives in the neighborhood of the working class of the Center of Havana, on Saturday.
In Havana, people bought food on Saturday. The companies were open, although some operated using batteries or small housing generators.
“We are very worried that the food goes wrong” in the refrigerator if the blackout lasts much more, said Frank García, a 26 -year -old marker worker in Havana.
The service stations were also open, but the tunnel that runs under the Bay of Havana and connects the city with the outskirts was dark.
Cuba suffered similar blackouts in October, November and December. The last one was the first of 2025, but in mid -February, the authorities suspended work classes and activities for two days due to a shortage of electricity generation that exceeded 50% in the country.
Experts have said that electricity interruptions are the result of fuel shortage in electric power plants and aging infrastructure. Most plants have been in operation for more than 30 years.
The interruptions occur when Cubans are experiencing a severe economic crisis that analysts have blamed for the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, a domestic measures program that triggered inflation and, above all, the hardening of sanctions by the United States.
