Cubans enter third day without power after fresh attempts to restore network fail

Millions of Cubans remained without power for a third day in a row Sunday after fresh attempts to restore electricity failed overnight

The Cuban Electrical Union said about 16% of the country had had power restored when the aging energy grid again overloaded late Saturday. Officials did not provide an update on when service would be reestablished.

This marks the third full collapse of Cuba’s energy grid since Friday, and most in the 10 million-strong country have had their access to power interrupted the whole time.

Recovery efforts will be complicated further by the arrival of Hurricane Oscar in eastern Cuba, which is expected to bring heavy winds and surf, forecasters said.

Cuba’s first island-wide blackout happened on Friday, when one of the country’s major power plants failed, according to the energy ministry.

Hours after officials said power was being slowly restored, the country suffered a second nationwide blackout on Saturday morning.

The blackouts threaten to plunge the communist-run nation into a deeper crisis. Water supply and keeping food fresh are both dependent on reliable power.

Some people began flooding WhatsApp chats with updates on which areas had power, while others arranged to store medications in the fridges of those who briefly had power – or were lucky enough to have a generator.

In Havana, residents waited for hours to buy a few loaves from the handful of locations selling bread in the capital. When the bread sold out, several people argued angrily that they had been skipped in line.

Many wondered aloud where Cuba’s traditional allies were, such as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. Until now, they had been supplying the island with badly needed barrels of oil to keep the lights on.

Meanwhile, tourists were still seen circling Havana’s main avenues in classic 1950s cars, although many hotel generators had run out of fuel.

Cuban officials have blamed the energy crisis on a confluence of events, from increased US economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.

In a televised address on Thursday that was delayed by technical difficulties, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid leaving people completely without power.

“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.

The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said Friday on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and that health workers continued to provide vital services.

Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight into Sunday, while videos of protests elsewhere in the capital have also surfaced.