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Fuel has been running out across Cuba since January, when U.S.
President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that
sells or provides oil to the island, deepening the island’s
ongoing economic and financial crisis. Public transportation has
largely been halted, and officials have canceled tens of
thousands of surgeries.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said microsystems were
already operating throughout Cuba a couple of hours after the
outage: “Vital services continue to be protected, amidst this
complex situation exacerbated by the energy blockade we face.”
Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of
trying to “incite social unrest by strangling Cuba’s fuel
supply.”
“The actions of electrical workers in the midst of a genocidal
energy blockade are heroic,” he wrote on X.
The outage sparked concern across Havana, with 36-year-old Lina
May wondering when the power would come back on so she could
cook some rice.
“I just told my dad that we have to buy charcoal because
otherwise we won’t eat and we’ll starve,” she said.
Richard Valdés, 40, said the outage is just the latest hit of
many. “We're without power again,” he said. “Now we have no
water, no gas, nothing until they restore it.”
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs, while the 730,000
barrels of oil delivered by a Russian tanker in late March ran
out by the end of April.
The government also has been rationing power with intentional
outages that can stretch to more than 24 consecutive hours.
A blackout in mid-May affected the island’s eastern provinces,
while a blackout in mid-March struck the entire island.
Like many Cubans, Mario Pedroso, a 33-year-old Havana resident,
was resigned about Monday's total blackout.
“Oil hasn’t come in here for a while, and we have no way to
solve the problem,” he said. "We have to resist, as we Cubans
say. That’s all.”
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Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico
contributed.
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