Cuba goes ‘pitch black’ with total power failure, PM declares energy crisis

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Electricity network throughout the area because of completely dead on Friday (18/10) which brought the Tobacco Country into darkness.

According to the Cuban Ministry of Energy, this incident caused the country’s main power plant to malfunction. As a result of this event, the capital of Cuba, Havana, was completely paralyzed as schools were closed, public transport stopped and traffic lights did not work.

The head of the Cuban Ministry of Energy’s electricity supply, Lazara Guerra, announced that the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the largest of the country’s eight coal-fired power plants, was suddenly shut down.

“The system collapsed,” Guerra told local state media, according to Channel News Asia.

He said that local authorities were working to restore services as soon as possible to the 11 million residents of Cuba.

The total blackout followed weeks of blackouts that lasted up to 20 hours a day in several areas of Cuba. This prompted Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to declare his country an “energy crisis.”

The local government suspended all non-essential public services to prioritize the supply of electricity to households.

Schools across Cuba have now been closed until next Monday (10/21). Authorities in Havana said hospitals and other essential facilities would remain open with generator support.

For three months, Cubans have been struggling with continuous power outages that have become more frequent.

The national energy crisis rate is around 30 percent. However, the level of energy crisis increased to almost 50 percent of the country’s needs, which caused frustration and anger among local residents.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the government would not stop until all electricity is restored.

He blamed the situation on Cuba’s difficulty in obtaining fuel for its power plants, which he linked to the tightening of the six-decade-old US trade embargo under the former President Donald Trump.

Cuba is in the worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, its main ally, in the early 1990s, characterized by extremely high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and even water.

With no help in sight, many Cubans emigrated. Meanwhile, according to US officials, more than 700 thousand people entered the US between January 2022 and August 2024.

Although authorities mainly blame the US embargo, Cuba is also feeling the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected its vital tourism sector and continued to economic mismanagement.

To strengthen its power grid, Cuba has leased seven floating power plants from Turkish companies and also added many small diesel-powered generators.

In July 2021, a power outage sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public anger in Cuba. At that time, thousands of residents took to the streets, calling for hunger and hope for independence. That is a rare challenge for the Cuban government.

In this case, one person was killed and dozens of others were injured. According to the Mexico-based human rights group, Justicia 11J, 600 people detained during the riots are still being held in prison.

In 2022, the island also suffered months of daily power outages for hours, caused by a national blackout caused by Hurricane Ian.

(of/DNA)