By admin MEXICO CITY — Cuba’s power grid collapsed for a second time Saturday shortly after Cuban officials announced they would begin restoring service, in what became one of the worst crises in the country’s history.
The
massive failure leaves 10 million people on the Caribbean island without power and with no clear indication of when power might be restored.
This is a new low in a country already grappling with a deepening economic crisis compounded by a US embargo and widespread food shortages.
The crisis began on Friday when one of the country’s largest power plants, the Antonio Guiteras plant in the western province of Matanzas, failed just before noon on Friday. The outage caused a complete failure of Cuba’s electrical system.
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz blamed the problem on deteriorating infrastructure and fuel shortages worsened by Hurricane Milton, which made it difficult for much-needed fuel supplies to reach the island.
Vehicles drive along the Malecon during a massive power outage after a major power plant in Havana failed on Friday.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
AP
Declaring an “energy crisis,” Marrero Cruz introduced measures to reduce energy consumption across the country – government workers were ordered to stay home, and schools and non-essential industries were closed. He also tried to calm concerns by saying he expected an influx of fuel from Cuba’s state oil company.
Although the collapse of the power grid comes as a surprise, the crisis has been going on for years. Cuba’s power plants are dilapidated and in desperate need of maintenance. Additionally, Cuba produces very little fuel itself, which means that it relies on imports to keep its energy grid running.
The island’s big problem is that Venezuela – a political ally that has been Cuba’s main fuel supplier for decades – has cut supplies in the face of its own economic crisis. Mexico and Russia also restricted exports, leaving Cuba in a vulnerable position.
There had been power outages across the island for months, and the situation came to a head with a power plant failure on Friday.
Cuba’s economy initially began to contract during the pandemic as international tourism plummeted and inflation rose. During the same period, former President Donald Trump imposed a series of sanctions on Cuba after redesignating the country as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”
Then in March
hundreds of protesters they took to the streets of Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city on the island, angry about the lack of electricity and food. Cuba’s communist government, which uses a rationing system to ensure a certain amount of food per household, has begun limiting bread allocations only to children and pregnant women. Some analysts say conditions are worse than the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a period known as the Special Period.
The Cuban government has long blamed its woes on decades-old US sanctions, which have complicated the island’s purchase of fuel and food.
While the causes of the crisis are multifaceted, the nationwide power outage is a new low for the government and Cubans still living on the island. Amid growing desperation, unprecedented numbers of Cubans are trying to immigrate to the United States by any means possible. The island has lost about 10 percent of its population over the past three years.
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