Cuban authorities said on Thursday that electricity had been restored to the majority of households after a massive blackout left around two-thirds of the country without power, an outage officials linked to fuel shortages under US pressure.
The national grid, which collapsed on Wednesday and plunged Havana and much of the island into darkness, has now been reconnected across the country. About 80 per cent of households in the capital had power again by late afternoon, according to the energy ministry.
The blackout across central and western Cuba began shortly after midday on Wednesday following a breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the island’s largest electricity-generating facility.
Authorities said the plant failure triggered the outage but stressed that the deeper issue is the “weakness of the electrical grid due to a lack of fuel” needed to run generators supporting the national system.
Fuel supplies are scarce because the United States has sharply restricted oil shipments to Cuba.
Cuba’s electricity generation system has been struggling for years, with power cuts lasting up to 20 hours a day becoming routine in some areas as the country lacks sufficient fuel to sustain generation.
The crisis in the island nation of around 9.6 million people has intensified since Washington ousted Cuba’s main ally, former president Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, on 3 January.
Maduro’s government had supplied roughly half of Cuba’s fuel needs. After his capture, the United States imposed an oil embargo on the island, though it later eased some restrictions following warnings from Caribbean nations that the move could trigger economic collapse and cause widespread hardship.
Even so, US President Donald Trump has maintained significant pressure on the island, leaving oil shipments from Caracas to Havana uncertain.
No oil has been imported into Cuba since 9 January, forcing airlines to reduce flights to the island and deepening a prolonged economic crisis.
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