Electricity is slowly returning to Cuba after the entire country lost power for the third time in less than ten days. The state-run electric company, Union Electrica, said it is working hard to fix the national grid, which has been struggling due to a severe shortage of fuel.
The company reported that the entire power system broke down on Tuesday morning because of a technical problem at a main power plant. This sudden failure instantly plunged the country of nearly ten million people into total darkness. While workers started fixing the grid late Tuesday night, only about a quarter of the homes in the capital city, Havana, had electricity by Wednesday morning.
On social media, the electric company explained that they are bringing the power back step by step, depending on how much energy the plants can safely produce.
This is the third complete blackout to hit the Caribbean island since the start of July, and the fifth time the power grid has failed since the beginning of this year. These constant power cuts have made many citizens angry. In some areas, people have protested by burning rubbish in the streets and banging pots and pans. In Havana, many homes went without power for over 30 hours, while farther provinces have been in the dark for days.
Cuba is currently facing its worst economic crisis in decades. The situation became much worse after US President Donald Trump placed strict rules on oil shipments to the island, aiming to pressure the communist government. These rules have left Cuba with very little fuel to run its power plants and make it difficult to buy spare parts to fix old machinery.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levi, told reporters that the power plants are old, but the US restrictions have made the crisis much worse. The minister said the country is facing a situation similar to a war, explaining that a total lack of fuel has also made emergency backup generators useless.
Tensions between the US and Cuba have been high all year, especially after US forces detained Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who is a close ally of Cuba and used to send them cheap oil. Since the oil restrictions began, the US has only allowed one Russian ship with oil to enter Cuba, and that supply has already been completely used up.
With trade rules getting tighter and diplomatic talks between the two countries completely stuck, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez recently confirmed that months of discussions have made no progress toward solving the crisis.
