Dusk has turned into a particularly chaotic time in Havana as Cuba braces for a third night that may be devoid of electricity after multiple unsuccessful attempts to restart the national grid. Long lines formed for bread earlier in the day, and the previous night, people ventured out of their stifling homes in search of food, drink, and news. “What’s the point of staying at home?” Alejandro Hernandez questioned, standing outside a bar in the Vedado neighborhood.
On Sunday, much of the island began to receive electricity again, but uncertainty loomed over whether the night would bring another power outage, as had occurred throughout the weekend. Jokes, which have become a fixture in the increasingly tough lives of Cubans, have taken on a more bitter tone. “Turn the Morro back on,” locals quip about Havana’s lighthouse. The island has lost over 10% of its population to emigration in just two years, totaling more than 1 million individuals.
Walking the streets at night has become dangerous, though not from violence; rather, it is due to the deteriorating sidewalks and exposed drains. The underlying issue is that the Cuban government has run out of funds, leading to power cuts lasting up to 20 hours a day as the state struggles to acquire enough fuel for its five main thermoelectric power plants.
Financial constraints have also resulted in water shortages, with failing pumps and pipes; trash piling up at street corners due to halted collections; and soaring food prices contributing to worsening hunger. The Cuban government attributes its fiscal crisis to the six-decade embargo by the U.S. On Friday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel referred to “the cruellest blockade.” However, respected economist Pedro Monreal challenges this narrative, arguing that the dysfunction is due to internal policy failures, labeling it a “bankruptcy caused by internal decisions.”
The crisis intensified when the government on Thursday instructed all nonessential workers in its extensive bureaucracy to go home to conserve energy, a move unprecedented except during hurricane impacts. This did not prevent the electrical grid from collapsing around 11 am on Friday when the main generating station in Matanzas went offline, leaving only those with personal generators in the light.
Since then, repeated efforts by Cuba’s Union Electrica to restore power have failed. Light briefly appeared in certain neighborhoods, particularly near hospitals, but then large sections of the country experienced outages—first at 6 am on Saturday and again at 10 pm, each time with a disconcerting thud. By 4:30 pm on Sunday, the system fell apart once more.
The hardest-hit area has been the west of Cuba, including Havana, shocking residents who have typically been shielded from the worst outages due to government concerns about potential protests. In July 2021, Cuba experienced its most significant protests in memory after unrest sparked over power cuts in a town west of Havana.
In a Caribbean nation that struggles to feed itself, power cuts can have dire consequences. Without fans, people face sleepless nights due to oppressive heat, and the loss of electricity causes food to spoil in refrigerators. Many are calling friends and family to see if they can store the minimal rations of meat provided to the most vulnerable.
During this latest crisis, the government has aimed to keep people informed. Government representatives announced the initial collapse of the electricity system on social media, drawing international attention and complicating an already struggling tourism industry, one of the country’s main foreign revenue sources.
A photograph circulated by government media showed Díaz Canel alongside his team and two technicians at the National Electricity Office, alongside Ramiro Valdés, a former vice-president who is now 92 years old. All five of the nation’s main power plants are nearing the end of their designed lifespans, as noted by Jorge Piñon, an expert on Cuba’s power system at the University of Texas.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero has called for a shift toward renewable energy and urged the growing private sector to take on more of the electricity costs it incurs. Despite government assurances that technicians are working “incessantly,” public comments on articles in CubaDebate, a state-run media outlet, reveal widespread frustration. One resident from the Plaza neighborhood of Havana lamented, “Millions of people without electricity or water. What are all the explanations worth?”
On Saturday night, well past dusk, the streets of Vedado were nearly deserted, with only a few people hastily making their way home and a couple of soldiers from an army patrol strolling slowly.
