Yesterday, Cuba experienced its third prolonged nationwide power outage in the span of two weeks, as the country’s fuel reserves have been running out since January.
At that time, Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba, further worsening the island’s severe economic crisis.
The state-owned electricity company, Electric Union, announced that a malfunction at a power generation unit in the eastern province of Holguín caused a “sudden frequency fluctuation” in the national grid, resulting in a general blackout across the country.
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs and, for the time being, no solution appears to be in sight to cover its needs through imports.
Both the Ministry of Energy and Mines and Electric Union announced that “restoration protocols have been activated,” which provide for the creation of electricity “micro-islands” that are subsequently interconnected in order to restore power first to critical facilities, such as hospitals and food processing plants.
The power outages and the U.S. energy embargo are causing serious consequences for the population, including restrictions on transportation, reduced working hours, and risks to public health.
Last week, two nationwide blackouts—on Monday and Friday—left more than nine million Cubans without electricity, adding to two others that occurred in March, as well as several regional outages.
Source: Associated Press
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