2024-10-21 23:26:00
Photo caption, People on the streets on the third night of the national blackout in Havana
- Author, Wise
- Role, BBC News World
4 hours ago
Since Friday (10/18), Cuba has been facing a severe blackout that has left around 10 million people – practically the entire population – without electricity.
This Monday (21st), the government declared that little by little the situation is being resolved, with 56% of the capital, Havana, having regained power.
Mines and Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said electricity supplies would be restored to most of the population on Monday night.
“The last customer will be able to receive the service [a volta] Tuesday,” the minister said.
Last Friday the island’s main power plant went down and the entire country was left without electricity.
Supply was partially restored on Saturday, before collapsing again.
As Cubans wait for normality to return, they see food rotting in their refrigerators.
“We have been without electricity for three nights and our food is rotting. Four days without electricity is abuse for children,” Mary Karla, a mother of three who did not want to give her last name, told the Associated Press (AP).
Credit, Reuters
Photo caption, Cars pass the Hotel Nacional, Havana, with everything in darkness
Without electricity even electric stoves don’t work, which is why some families cook with wood.
In addition to the discomfort of being in the dark, in many homes the water supply depends on electric pumps, so there is no way to clean utensils or take a shower. Businesses and schools had to close.
In recent days there have been potholes in several places and, in others, people have blocked the streets with piles of rubbish, such as in San Miguel del Padrón, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana.
In addition to the blackout, on Sunday (20th), the country was hit by Hurricane Oscar. Now transformed into a tropical storm, there are fears that it could damage Cuba’s precarious energy distribution infrastructure.
Despite its overwhelming scale, Friday’s blackout is just another in a series of incidents of energy woes. For a long time, electricity was cut or rationed in the country.
This year, many Cuban homes have already spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.
However, this blackout is considered the worst Cuba has suffered since Hurricane Ian hit the island as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and affected electrical systems that took the government days to repair.
The causes of the recurring problems differ depending on whether you listen to the version of the Cuban authorities or of people critical of the government.
Outdated infrastructure and increased demand
The total blackout occurred after the Antonio Guiteras plant, the largest on the island, went out of service around 11 a.m. Friday local time.
The fault collapsed the entire island system.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel has criticized the embargo that the United States has imposed on the island’s economy for decades, arguing that the blockade prevents the arrival of production factors and spare parts.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez then echoed the president’s words, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that “if the embargo ends, there will be no blackouts.”
“That way, the U.S. government could support the Cuban people… if they wanted to.”
Photo caption, Cubans made pots during the blackout
Local authorities also attribute the problems to increased demand from homes and businesses for air conditioning systems.
Regarding the current blackout, Minister O. Levy also said that the situation would be better if two more partial blackouts had not occurred as authorities attempted to restore power on Saturday.
The minister said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Russia, among other countries, had offered help.
Fuel shortage
In addition to the embargo and increased demand, the Cuban government has pointed to another cause of these problems.
“The fuel shortage is the most important factor,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in a televised speech.
The president of the National Electric Union, Alfredo López Valdés, also recognized that the island faces a difficult situation regarding energy.
Cuba depends on imports to power its largely obsolete, oil-dependent power plants. And this year the island has been hit by a drop in shipments of crucial fuel from Venezuela.
In 2000, then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed a deal with Fidel Castro to supply the island with about 53,000 barrels of oil per day in exchange for sending Cuban medical missions. The agreement continued with Nicolas Maduro.
Although there was a recovery in oil shipments in May, in recent years shipments of Venezuelan fuel to Cuba have decreased significantly due to the crisis that has been affecting one of the island’s great allies for years.
It also reduced the flow of fuel from other major suppliers, Russia and Mexico.
In the latter case, the country reduced exports during the election period. The new president Claudia Sheinbaum has not yet taken a position on the continuation of supplies to Cuba.
Criticism of state policy
However, many voices critical of the Cuban authorities point to other political and economic problems underlying the energy crisis.
This is the case of the economist Pedro Monreal, who on his social networks reacted to the headline “Cuba in the fight against the energy challenge” that the official newspaper Granma had on the cover.
“It’s not a challenge, it’s energy ruin due to failed central planning imposed by political power,” Monreal wrote on the social network X.
“It is a structural crisis exacerbated by regulatory failure and complicated by ineffective solutions. It is a failure caused by internal decisions,” he added.
Photo caption, Díaz-Canel blamed the blackout on the US embargo
Cuban journalist Monica Baró reported in a news story on the Periodismo de Barrio website that although Cubans are already accustomed to what they ironically call “alumbrones” (in loose translation, something like “acesões”, a joke indicating that time without light would be the rule), this time it was different.
“My father is 72 years old. He lived through all the Cuban crises. Few things can impress him, but tonight he remains impressed.”
Baró reports that as early as 2022, energy expert Jorge Piñón, director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Texas, predicted a “total collapse of the Cuban electricity system.”
In the interview with Rádio Martí, Piñón also questioned the “band-aid policy” adopted by the government to solve the problems.
“A structural recapitalization is needed,” he said.
“There is nothing to support the country”
Last Friday, Cuban authorities announced the cancellation of all non-essential activities.
In the case of schools, in an unprecedented measure, lessons were suspended until Wednesday.
In pitch-dark Havana on Sunday evening, only a few businesses were functioning, while bars and homes were powered by small fuel-powered generators, Reuters reported.
Most of the city of 2 million went silent.
Residents played dominoes on sidewalks, listened to music on battery-powered radios and sat on their doorsteps.
“It’s crazy,” Eloy Fon, an 80-year-old pensioner who lives in central Havana, told the AFP news agency.
“This shows the fragility of our electricity system… We have no reserves, there is nothing to support the country.”
Focus on tension
Long blackouts have long been a source of tension in Cuba.
In July 2021, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest days-long blackouts across much of the country.
In March this year, hundreds of people in Cuba’s second largest city, Santiago, staged a rare public protest against chronic blackouts and food shortages.
The Cuban government is increasingly aware that many on the island have lost their fear of speaking openly about the different problems they face on a daily basis.
Díaz-Canel appeared on national television Sunday night dressed in an olive-green military uniform, encouraging Cubans to air their grievances with discipline and civility.
“We will not accept or allow anyone to engage in acts of vandalism, much less disturb the tranquility of our people,” said the president, who is rarely seen in uniform.
Meanwhile, residents of Old Havana, such as Anabel González, told Reuters that residents are desperate.
“My cell phone died and when I looked in my refrigerator, I realized what little I had had rotted away.”
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