Cuba Completely Without Electricity, 10 Million Inhabitants in the Dark

Cuba was trying Friday night to restore its electricity system, paralyzed by a giant blackout that plunged its 10 million inhabitants into darkness.

“There will be no respite” until the service is “totally restored,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Friday night during a crisis meeting broadcast on state television. Cuba is experiencing an “energy emergency,” he acknowledged.

“The system is without electricity throughout the country,” after the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant in the center-west of the country, announced Lazaro Guerra, director general of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, on state television at midday. Mr. Guerra specified that when the power plant stopped “the system collapsed,” causing a giant blackout.

As night fell, Havana's wide avenues were plunged into darkness, with the exception of points of light provided by some hotels, hospitals and a few private restaurants or bars that could run generators, AFP noted.

“We are living in a terrible situation with this outage,” said Betsabe Valdes, 40, on the verge of tears, who had come to get some air on an avenue in central Havana to avoid the heat of her apartment.

“We have no gas, we have no electricity, life is difficult because we have a little girl,” she added, pointing to her one-year-old niece. “Small children and the elderly are the ones who suffer the most,” she continued.

On Thursday, the Cuban president announced that Cuba was in a situation of “energy emergency” due to difficulties in buying the fuel needed to power its power plants, due to the strengthening of the embargo that Washington has imposed on the communist island since 1962.

“This is one more demonstration of all the problems that the blockade causes us,” he hammered home Friday evening.

– “Aberrant”, “terrible” –

“It's aberrant,” Eloy Font, an 80-year-old retiree living in central Havana, told AFP. “This demonstrates the fragility of our electrical system (…) there is no reserve, there is no way to keep this country standing, we live from day to day,” he fumed.

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Havana in the dark during a giant power outage, October 18, 2024 © AFP – Yamil LAGE

For three months, Cubans have been suffering from recurring power cuts that have become more and more frequent. On Thursday, the national energy deficit, which had been hovering around 30%, reached 50%, reinforcing the population's exasperation.

“Two days ago I could barely work and now what am I going to do ? It's terrible to live like this, in 47 years I haven't seen anything worse,” Barbara Lopez, a digital content creator, laments to AFP.

Classes have been suspended at all levels in the country until Monday, and all entertainment venues have been closed.

– Dilapidation –

The first restrictions date back to March, with the government's increasing difficulties in obtaining fuel and parts needed to operate and repair the country's aging thermoelectric plants.

In recent weeks in several provinces, power cuts have lasted more than 20 hours per day. day.

Cubans play dominoes in the dark during a national power outage, on October 18, 2024 in Havana © AFP – Yamil LAGE

On Thursday, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced the suspension of all non-essential public services in order to prioritize the supply of electricity to hospitals, businesses and households.

On the island, electricity is produced from eight dilapidated thermal power plants, sometimes out of order or undergoing maintenance, as well as several floating power plants, which the government leases to Turkish companies, and from generators.

Most of these infrastructures require fuel to operate.

The island is currently experiencing its worst crisis in three decades, with shortages of food and medicine and chronic power cuts.

Power outages were one of the triggers for the unprecedented anti-government protests of July 11, 2021. In September 2022, the island had already experienced a widespread blackout after Hurricane Ian hit the west of the island.

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