Cuba’s latest blackout deepens the fight over who caused it

Cuba’s latest blackout deepens the fight over who caused it
Cuba suffered another nationwide power failure on Friday after its electricity grid collapsed, cutting service to millions and disrupting telecommunications and internet access. Cuban authorities said a transmission-line fault in the west had cascaded across the system, and activated restoration protocols; by early evening, power had returned to roughly 5% of Havana users, according to one account.

Both accounts portray a crisis that reaches far beyond lighting. Water supplies, transport, communications and food preparation have all been affected, while isolated systems were being set up in some provinces to protect essential services, including hospitals. Residents described the pressure in more personal terms. “It’s one thing after another: no water, no gas to cook, no electricity,” teacher Lidia Fernández told AFP.

The central disagreement is over the cause. Cuba’s state power company said the latest failure followed a disruption “in the transmission lines,” compounded by unstable weather in the region. Cuban authorities, as described in the reporting, also argue that US measures restricting fuel purchases have made it harder to supply thermal plants and diesel-powered backup generators. The blackout was described as the seventh general outage of the year and the 12th since late 2024.

The US Embassy in Havana, meanwhile, warned Americans to prepare for further outages and characterized the Cuban electrical system as increasingly unstable, with daily scheduled cuts and longer unplanned interruptions. That view puts the emphasis on fuel shortages, ageing infrastructure and a lack of maintenance parts, rather than external restrictions alone.

The competing accounts converge on the immediate reality: prolonged outages are becoming routine. Retiree Francisco Rodríguez, who said his home had already been without electricity for 28 hours, feared the latest disconnection could leave residents in the dark for days.

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