More than 60 percent of Cuba's eleven million residents now live without reliable electricity, enduring daily blackouts that stretch beyond 18 hours in most provinces outside Havana, according to reports from Aroma de Cuba and independent Cuban journalists. [1] The grid has collapsed and partially recovered at least six times since October 2024, but each recovery leaves less generating capacity than the one before.

The immediate trigger was a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, the island's largest, which went offline in early March and has not returned to full capacity. [2] But the underlying cause is structural. Cuba's power plants are Soviet-era installations, some dating to the 1970s, running on fuel oil that has become scarce since the Hormuz crisis disrupted global shipping routes and the U.S. tightened sanctions on Venezuelan and Mexican oil deliveries to the island. [1]

Hospitals have been particularly affected. Reports from provincial capitals describe neonatal ICUs relying on portable generators that run for four to six hours before needing refueling -- fuel that is itself rationed. [2] The government issued a directive instructing citizens when to charge mobile phones, a measure that prompted one widely shared post asking: "Is this 2026 or 1976?"

Havana receives preferential grid access, but even the capital now experiences eight to twelve hours of daily outages. [1] The government has offered no timeline for restoration. Replacement parts for the aging thermoelectric plants are manufactured in Russia, and delivery through current shipping constraints is uncertain.

The lights are out. Nobody is coming to turn them back on.

-- LUCIA VEGA, Sao Paulo