Overview
- The national grid operator said a total disconnection occurred on Monday, cutting power to roughly 10 million people and triggering an immediate investigation.
- Cuban authorities activated emergency protocols and brought isolated ‘microsystems’ online to keep vital services such as hospitals and food production running.
- Over 24–48 hours officials reported partial restoration by reconnecting many distribution circuits and most provinces while large areas, including parts of Havana, remained without steady service.
- Government leaders blamed a U.S. fuel blockade for the crisis, fuel shortages and decades‑old, poorly maintained thermal plants have limited auxiliary generation and prompted scattered protests in Havana.
- The outage builds on repeated collapses since late 2024 caused by aging Soviet‑era plants and lost subsidized oil supplies, and the slow restart shows that full recovery requires working thermoelectric units plus large, distributed fuel reserves.