ALBAWABA - Total power grid failure in Cuba leaves millions of citizens without electricity, compounding fuel shortage issues, obsolete infrastructure, and U.S. embargos and sanctions.
The nationwide blackout is not a rare occurrence in the struggling country as rolling power cuts are becoming more and more common amid aging infrastructure and state fuel shortages as 24 hours earlier the entire western part of the country went dark.
State media said there was a “total disconnection” of the national electricity system as citizens suffer from the immense heat of the Caribbean; now in darkness and without fans.
The absence of the most basic amenities, like fuel and electricity, make normal dignified life impossible in Cuba as the energy crises drag on for months on end with no solutions.
The growing strain on Cuban society has manifested itself in public displays of disobedience in the form of citizens setting piles of trash on fire or banging on pots and pans in the worst-affected areas.
The Ministry of Energy said that it is commencing ‘protocols’ to reactivate the grid amid heavy oil sanctions and blockades by the U.S. with only one Russian tanker carrying 100,000 tons of crude allowed to pass through in March - those reserves having been long exhausted.
Alongside the oil blockades, the Trump administration has hit Cuban state-owned businesses with a fresh wave of sanctions, leading to many foreign firms suspending their trade with the increasingly isolated island country.
