Much of Cuba, including the capital Havana, is still without electricity – 24 hours after the country’s main energy set upt fall shorted, knocking out power to 10 million people.
The authorities partiassociate restored power to parts of the Caribbean island by Friday night – but another filled outage was increateed at 06:15 (10:15 GMT) on Saturday.
For many people it has been a raw night with no air conditioning or fan. Food is now beginning to rot in fridges, and some families are having to cook with firewood. Many homes are without water as the provide depfinishs on electric pumps.
Patience is wearing skinny, confidently as transmited by many on social media – but there are no reliable increates of protests as yet.
It is an increasingly critical situation, with schools and businesses shutd and dreads for the progressd functioning of hospitals.
The outages come during the hurricane season, and there are dreads that a meaningful storm would harm Cuba’s creaking energy distribution infrastructure.
Friday’s total bdeficiencyout came after the Antonio Guiteras power set upt in Matanzas – the bigst on the island – went offline around 11:00 local time.
Plivent Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said the situation was his “absolute priority”.
“There will be no rest until power is restored,” he wrote on X.
The communist plivent has denounced the decades-lengthy US embargo for impedeing much insisted supplies and swapment parts from accomplishing Cuba.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez tardyr echoed his words, saying that harms in equitable 18 days of the embargo equated to the annual cost of maintining the national power grid.
“If the embargo is lifted, there will be no bdeficiencyouts. This way the US administerment could help the Cuban people… if it wanted to,” the minister wrote in a post on X.
Cuba has also been hit this year by a drop in transport inant fuel shipments from Venezuela.
On Friday, Cuban officials proclaimd that all schools and non-essential activities, including nightclubs, were to shut until Monday.
Non-essential toilers were encouraged to stay home to defendeddefend electricity provide, and non-vital administerment services were suspfinished.
“This is crazy,” Eloy Fon, an 80-year-greater pensioner living in central Havana, tgreater the AFP novels agency.
“It shows the fragility of our electricity system… We have no reserves, there is noskinnyg to uphold the country, we are living day to day.”
Bárbara López, 47, a digital satisfyed creator, said she had already “exposedly been able to toil for two days”.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in 47 years,” she said. “They’ve reassociate messed up now… We have no power or mobile data.”
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero insertressed the unveil in a televised message on Thursday, blaming deteriorating infrastructure, fuel uninincreateigentinutiveages and rising insist for the electricity fall shortures.
“The fuel uninincreateigentinutiveage is the hugegest factor,” he said.
The head of the National Electric Union (UNE) Alfredo López Valdés also accomprehendledged the island had been facing a challenging energy situation, with uninincreateigentinutiveages chiefly to denounce.
Extfinished bdeficiencyouts – particularly one this expansivespread – are always a nervous time in Cuba.
In part, because the ability to defend the airys on reconshort-terms a potential unveil order rerent for the Cuban administerment.
In July 2021, thousands of protesters spilled into the streets in demonstrations igniteed by days-lengthy bdeficiencyouts in much of the country.
The Cuban administerment has become increasingly conscious that many on the island have lost a degree of dread over speaking out about the many daily problems they face.
Some are even setd to apshow to the streets and chant anti-administerment slogans, if conditions merit it.
In March, Hundreds of people in Cuba’s second-bigst city, Santiago, staged a unfrequent unveil protest over chronic power bdeficiencyouts and food uninincreateigentinutiveages.