Cuba experienced its second nationwide blackout in less than a week on Friday, as the island’s struggling electricity grid suffered another total collapse. According to the state electricity company, UNE, the system failed at 4:30 p.m. local time (2030 UTC). This incident marks the ninth national power outage since 2024 and the fourth within the year 2026 alone.
The nation’s Energy Ministry announced on social media that recovery protocols are currently being activated to restore electricity. While authorities have not yet provided a specific explanation for this latest failure, a similar outage on Monday was attributed by officials to low electricity output and voltage instability. Most of the country had regained power by late Tuesday following that event.
The recurring failures highlight the precarious state of Cuba’s energy infrastructure, which has been severely impacted by a six-month US fuel blockade. The island requires an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil daily to maintain its energy needs, yet only one oil tanker—carrying enough fuel for approximately two weeks—has successfully docked in Cuba since the blockade began.
Tensions remain high following the decision by US President Donald Trump to cut off oil supplies in January, a move intended to undermine the Cuban communist government. This policy shift occurred shortly after the United States kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, leading to his effective replacement by acting President Delcy Rodriguez; Venezuela had previously served as a primary oil supplier for Cuba.
Havana continues to blame the ongoing power crisis on the decades-long US economic embargo and its effect on the country’s aging infrastructure. Conversely, Washington maintains that the energy shortages are primarily the result of state mismanagement of the Cuban economy.
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