Trump’s oil squeeze triggers nationwide blackout in Cuba as main energy plant fails

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Trump’s oil squeeze triggers nationwide blackout in Cuba as main energy plant fails

3 min learnMar 22, 2026 08:20 PM IST

At 6.32pm on Saturday, Cuba went darkish for the second time in per week, as its energy grid collapsed below mounting stress following US President Donald Trump’s grip choked oil provides to the island.

The outage, triggered by the failure of a single energy plant, cascaded throughout the nation and far of the island was left with out electrical energy, communication or readability on when provide could be restored.

One plant, nationwide collapse

The blackout started when a serious energy plant in Nuevitas, in japanese Camaguey province, failed and went offline, grid operator UNE mentioned. This disruption set off a cascade impact, knocking out electrical energy throughout the nation.

The most recent disaster comes after Trump moved to dam oil flows from Venezuela, which had lengthy equipped Cuba on beneficial phrases.

Since then, Washington has reduce off Venezuelan exports to the island and warned of punitive tariffs on different nations supplying oil. Cuba has lengthy blamed the US commerce embargo for its financial and infrastructure challenges, together with its ageing energy grid, whereas Washington has attributed the shortfalls to the island’s state-controlled financial mannequin.

Life at the hours of darkness

In Havana, the outage disrupted individuals’s routines. Shortly after dawn, residents gathered on doorsteps, talking with neighbours, swatting mosquitoes and ready out the blackout.

An electrical tricycle transports prospects throughout a blackout in Havana, Cuba (AP Picture)

“Life doesn’t change. We’re caught in the identical rut,” mentioned Leoni Alberto, who mentioned he has needed to cook dinner with firewood at the least twice per week because of the outages. “It’s absolute insanity. There’s no different manner round it,” Reuters reported him saying.

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Mobile and web providers have been nearly totally unavailable in most areas, leaving many with none type of communication.

Emergency patchwork

By early Sunday, Cuba’s vitality and mines ministry mentioned it had activated “microsystems”, smaller, remoted circuits, throughout all provinces to revive energy to essential providers akin to hospitals, water provide and meals distribution.

A vendor lights her manner with a battery-powered lamp whereas ready for purchasers on the Malecón throughout a blackout in Havana, Cuba (AP Picture)

The nation’s two gas-fired crops operated by Energas have been operating in Varadero and Boca de Jaruco, and electrical energy had reached the close by Santa Cruz oil-fired plant, the ministry mentioned.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero mentioned the hassle was underway below “very advanced circumstances”.

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A disaster intensifying

Saturday’s collapse marks the third main nationwide outage this month and the second in only a week, an vitality disaster even by Cuba’s current requirements.

The grid has been unreliable for months, leaving residents with out energy for hours at a time even in comparatively secure durations. However back-to-back nationwide failures are uncommon, pointing to mounting systemic stress, information company Reuters reported.

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