Cuba suffers its seventh massive blackout of the year: How are its residents surviving?
The island's National Electric System collapsed this Friday, leaving Cubans in yet another total blackout. It is the seventh widespread outage recorded so far in 2026 and brings the total number of massive blackouts since late 2024 to 12, according to AFP.
A man walks down a dark street in Havana, Cuba during the blackout
Cuba suffered another widespread blackout on Friday—the seventh so far this year—amid a deep energy crisis that has made prolonged power outages a part of daily life for millions of Cubans.
"There has been a total shutdown of the electrical grid," the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported on X, without initially specifying the causes of the new outage.
With this incident, the island has now experienced seven nationwide blackouts in 2026 and 12 since late 2024—a series of failures that reflects the fragility of an electrical system plagued by decades of deterioration and lack of investment.
Blackouts lasting up to 60 hours
The island, with a population of about 9.4 million, suffers constant power outages due to the poor condition of its thermal power plants and insufficient generation capacity.
In recent weeks, blackouts have lasted more than 30 hours in Havana, while in some provinces they have exceeded 60 consecutive hours, according to AFP.
The lack of electricity also affects other basic services. The outages directly impact the water supply, which depends on electric pumping systems, as well as telephone and communications networks.
The crisis also extends to food preservation, hospital operations, transportation, and economic activity, in a country where the population is also facing shortages of basic goods, inflation and a sharp decline in purchasing power.
Fuel shortages and deteriorating infrastructure
Havana attributes much of the electricity crisis to sanctions and measures imposed by Washington, which it holds responsible for limiting its access to fuel and financing.
The United States, for its part, maintains that the deterioration of the grid and the economic crisis are primarily due to decades of mismanagement by the Cuban regime, a lack of reforms and insufficient investment in infrastructure.
Beyond this dispute, the reality is that the Cuban power grid has been operating at its limit for years, with aging power plants, recurring outages and a generation capacity insufficient to meet demand.
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