Power outage knocks out power in eastern Cuba

The state power company announced that eastern Cuba, where the country's second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, is located, went dark Wednesday night due to a failure in the power grid.

"At 8:54 p.m. a failure occurred at the Holguín 220 kV substation, causing the disconnection of the Electrical System in the eastern zone," the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) indicated on the social media platform X.

No internet outages, "but everything off, as usual"

The UNE specified that the damage left "Holguín province partially without service and the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo," of the country's 15 provinces, totally affected.

The power "went out around 5 p.m., but since it goes out so often, I didn't even know it was a widespread" issue in the east, 28-year-old Isabel, a resident of Santiago de Cuba, a city of 400,000, told AFP by phone.

"We have connection (to the internet) but everything else is off as usual," added this mother who only wanted to give her first name.

Serious infrastructure problems

The Cuban power grid regularly suffers outages due to aging infrastructure and fuel shortages.

Since the end of 2024, the island of 9.6 million inhabitants has experienced five widespread supply cuts. Under a U.S. embargo since 1962 and in the midst of a severe economic crisis, Cuba has been facing a severe fuel shortage for the past three years, affecting electricity production.

Cut to Venezuelan and Mexican crude oil? From the Trump Administration

That fuel shortage worsened after U.S. President Donald Trump, who took control of Venezuela's oil sector in early January, put an end to the flow of crude oil and money from Caracas to the communist island.

In addition, Trump assured on Monday that Mexico will stop supplying oil to Cuba, after signing last week an executive order threatening to impose additional tariffs on any country that supplies oil to the island.

"It will collapse"

To justify this policy of pressure, Washington invokes an "exceptional threat" that Cuba, a Caribbean island located only 150 km off the coast of Florida, would pose to U.S. national security.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced this week her intention to send humanitarian aid to Cuba and said she is seeking an agreement with Washington that would allow it to resume supplying oil to the island.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said he "is very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen or collapse, if its oil needs are not met," his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said on Wednesday.

Cuba claims it cannot repair its electrical grid

The Castro regime claims that U.S. sanctions prevent it from repairing its electricity grid, but economists point to the chronic lack of state investment in this sector.

For the past five years, Cuba has been going through a deep economic crisis, with a shortage of foreign currency contributing to the erosion of many basic services. In addition to power outages, Cubans face high inflation and shortages.

Trump, who multiplies threats against Cuba, repeats that the United States has engaged in a dialogue with the Castro regime which, according to him, will culminate in an agreement. "There is no dialogue specifically at the moment, but there has been an exchange of messages," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told AFP.