Western Cuba suffered a regional blackout on Saturday that affected several provinces, including Havana, the country’s capital and the largest city in the Caribbean nation, authorities said.
Read more Dodgers land Cy Young ace Tarik Skubal in a blockbuster deadline deal
This disconnection from the National Electric System (SEN) adds to several episodes of nationwide and regional collapses this year amid a severe crisis caused by an energy squeeze imposed by the United States.
A statement from Cuba’s Electric Union posted on its social media said that, in the afternoon, a simultaneous outage of the 220-kilovolt lines from Matanzas to Cienfuegos and from Matanzas to Santa Clara caused “the division of the SEN and subsequently the collapse of the western zone.”
“Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana and Matanzas were left without service,” the statement said. It did not indicate how long it would take to restore the grid.
Havana, the country’s capital, has 1.6 million residents.
Cubans are experiencing daily power cuts, with blackouts lasting more than 20 hours, compounded by these larger incidents.
In July, there were three nationwide collapses of the SEN, underscoring the extreme vulnerability of electricity distribution for the public and for industry. Other basic services, such as water supply and cooking food on the island, depend on electricity.
Read more Trump blasts Pirro after she refutes his claim that Reflecting Pool was damaged by vandals
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an energy squeeze against Cuba in January —as a pressure tactic aimed at changing the country’s economic and political model— that intensified a preexisting five-year crisis driven by U.S. sanctions and a failed domestic financial reform.
In addition to the oil blockade —which, through threats and sanctions, prevents crude from other countries from reaching the island— in recent weeks, the United States added sanctions against third-country companies doing business with Cuba, forcing long-standing trading partners to leave the island.
The consequences for the population have been dramatic, ranging from shortages of fuel and medicines to a drop in food production, hotel closures –tourism was a strategic sector for the Cuban economy–, lost workdays, suspended flights and an industry operating at a near standstill.
This story was translated from Spanish with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. An NBC6 digital editor reviewed the translation.
Read more Trump says Mideast allies have reached outlines of deal to end Iran war, U.S. to stop new strikes