Cuba plunges into darkness as a critical power plant fails, and it has everything to do with the US oil chokehold

Cuba just got plunged into darkness across most of the island, including its capital, Havana, after a critical power plant failed, as reported by Reuters. This widespread blackout is hitting at a time when the Communist-run government is already grappling with significant pressure from President Trump’s administration, which has really tightened its grip on oil shipments to the nation.

The state electric utility, Union Electrica UNE, confirmed that the massive outage was caused by an unexpected failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant. This plant is located about 62 miles east of Havana. The power cut stretched from Pinar del Rio in the far west all the way to the central-eastern Camaguey province.

Things got even worse when substations in eastern Las Tunas province also malfunctioned, meaning only Cuba’s far eastern provinces managed to keep their lights on. The Felton 1 thermoelectric power plant in Holguin province, way out east, was one of the few that stayed online, which is a small relief for those areas.

This isn’t Cuba’s first rodeo with major blackouts, but the current situation is definitely exacerbated by the Trump administration’s actions

Repairs to the Guiteras generating station aren’t going to be a quick fix, either. Roman Perez, the plant’s technical director, indicated that it could take three to four days to get things running again. He said the main goal is to reduce water consumption by fixing a malfunction in the boiler’s superheater and other leaks. That sounds like a pretty involved repair job.

The US has really cracked down on oil shipments, especially those coming from Venezuela, after Washington moved to oust leader Nicolas Maduro earlier in January. This has left Cuba in a really tough spot for fuel. The Cuban government has consistently blamed its economic woes, including a lack of investment in power generation and its electric grid, on decades of economic sanctions from the US.

For folks in Havana, who are quite used to rolling power outages due to state rationing, many seemed to take this latest blackout in stride. You’d see some traffic lights and businesses still going thanks to solar panels or generators.

However, not everyone thinks it’s okay. Arian Mendoza, a 28-year-old engineer living in Havana, voiced his frustration, saying, “The SEN [electrical grid] going dark should not be considered normal. I don’t think it’s right.”

The outage even took Cuban state TV off the air, which just shows you the extent of the problem. Their 1:00 PM national news broadcast started more than half an hour late, with the presenter explaining the delay was, of course, due to the blackout. For some, it means a complete communication breakdown. Angeli Aviles, an 18-year-old student in Havana, put it simply, “We can’t communicate, we don’t know what’s on the news because we can’t turn on the TV.”

The scarcity of fuel has forced Cuba’s government to ration other essential services too, like trash collection and transportation. It’s no wonder some residents have taken matters into their own hands, installing solar panels on their homes and even vehicles to keep power going amidst soaring fuel prices.

To make matters even more complicated, Mexico, which had stepped in as an alternate oil supplier after Venezuela’s shipments dwindled, announced it would halt its supplies. This decision came after the US threatened tariffs on countries providing Cuba with oil.