Camille Naredo

Article (news)

Cuba

<p>HAVANA, Cuba -- Cuban authorities scrambled Sunday to restore power to the island after the second nationwide blackout in less than a week, as the grid struggles due to an aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.</p><p>Some parts of Havana began to have electricity again, a day after the energy ministry reported a &quot;total disconnection&quot; of the national electric system in the country of nearly 10 million people.</p><p>The outage comes as Cuba&#x27;s communist government has faced growing pressure from US President Donald Trump, who imposed the de facto oil blockade in January and mused this week about &quot;taking&quot; the Caribbean island.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/3/17/trump-vows-to-take-cuba-as-island-reels-from-oil-embargo-0843">READ: Trump vows to &#x27;take&#x27; Cuba as island reels from oil embargo</a></div><p>A top Cuban diplomat said the country&#x27;s military was &quot;preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We truly hope that it doesn&#x27;t occur,&quot; Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told NBC&#x27;s &quot;Meet the Press&quot; in an interview taped before the blackout and aired Sunday.</p><p>He said Havana was willing to talk with the United States but discussing changes to its political system was off the table.</p><p>&quot;Cuba has no quarrel with the United States. We do have the need and the right to protect ourself. But we are willing to sit down,&quot; Fernandez de Cossio said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Restless night&#x27; -</strong></div><p>There have been seven nationwide blackouts since 2024, making life more difficult for Cubans who fear food will spoil in refrigerators, among other problems in a country in economic crisis.</p><p>&quot;The truth is, it gets harder every day to live with this situation,&quot; Alina Quinones, a 48-year-old nurse, told AFP as she headed to the Havana hospital where she works after barely sleeping.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/3/18/cuba-vows-unbreakable-resistance-as-us-pressure-mounts-1315">READ: Cuba vows &#x27;unbreakable resistance&#x27; as US pressure mounts</a></div><p>She had no power, internet or phone connection, making it impossible to reach relatives in Matanzas, a city east of the capital.</p><p>&quot;Imagine, without sleep, my child was restless all night,&quot; Quinones said.</p><p>Francisco Gonzalez, a 79-year-old retiree, also said he had a sleepless night in the dark, &quot;sitting in an armchair at home, waiting for the power to come back on.&quot;</p><p>The outages, as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics, are fueling public frustration with people banging pots at night as a form of protest.</p><p>In a rare moment of violence, demonstrators vandalized a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.</p><p>The breakdowns have intensified since Cuba&#x27;s main regional ally and oil supplier, Venezuela&#x27;s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, was captured in a US military operation in January.</p><p>Trump subsequently threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.</p><p>No oil has arrived since January 9, hitting the power sector while public transport has dwindled and airlines curtailed flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Very severe&#x27; -</strong></div><p>The latest blackout was due to an outage in a generating unit at one of the country&#x27;s eight thermoelectric plants, triggering a domino effect in the system, according to authorities.</p><p>A gas power station near Havana and another in the beach resort of Varadero were generating power again on Sunday, as well as a hydroelectric plant in central Cuba, energy and mining minister Vicente de la O Levy said on X. A unit of a thermoelectric plant was also back online.</p><p>Havana&#x27;s electricity company said on social media that more than 157,000 customers, or 18 percent of the capital, had power on Sunday morning.</p><p>The new blackout occurred as an international aid convoy began to arrive in Cuba this week, bringing sorely-needed medical supplies, food, water and solar panels to the Caribbean island.</p><p>But getting oil to power its decades-old thermoelectric plant is becoming increasingly urgent.</p><p>&quot;It is very severe. And we are acting as proactively as we can to cope with the situation,&quot; Fernandez de Cossio told NBC.</p><p>&quot;We do hope that fuel will reach Cuba one way or the other and that this boycott that the United States has been imposing does not last and cannot be sustained forever,&quot; he said.</p>

<p>Cuban authorities scrambled Sunday to restore power to the island after the second nationwide blackout in less than a week, as the grid struggles due to an aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.</p>

Cuban authorities scrambled Sunday to restore power to the island after the second nationwide blackout in less than a week, as the grid struggles due to an aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.

Cuba scrambles to restore power after new blackout

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Cuba scrambles to restore power after new blackout

Laurent Thomet and Lisandra Cots,

Agence France-Presse

Published Mar 23, 2026 12:27 AM PHT

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Cuba

United States

politics

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oil blockade

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