Cuba plunged into darkness, US accused of ‘act of war’

The collapse of the island’s electricity grid – the third nationwide blackout in six months – saw groups of outraged locals take to the streets, banging pots and calling to “turn the lights on” in protest.

The widespread blackout was caused by voltage instability and low levels of electricity output, Cuban authorities said on Tuesday.

The Caribbean nation was already struggling to keep the lights on when US President Donald Trump cut off oil supplies from Venezuela in January and authorised tariffs on nations that supply oil to the island, as part of a pressure campaign aimed at ending six decades of communist rule.

The move came on top of Washington’s decades-long economic embargo on Cuba.

With only one oil tanker from Russia making it to Cuba’s shores since then, the country’s power plants are running out of critical fuel needed to generate electricity.

“There are shortages of transport, food, medicines, there are lengthy power cuts lasting more than 20 hours, that causes dissatisfaction, nobody can be happy, the people are suffering,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told Spanish-language newspaper Claridad.

Mr Díaz-Canel pointed the blame at the US, urging residents to direct their outrage to its government.

“People bang pots, some with more anger than others. I say: direct your pot-banging towards our northern neighbours, who are the ones behind these power cuts,” he said.

The President further lambasted the “genocidal energy blockade” in a post on social media this week.

“The actions of electrical workers in the midst of a genocidal energy blockade are heroic,” he wrote on X, accusing the US of trying to “trigger social unrest through strangulation”.

Cuba’s energy grid was fully restored early on Wednesday, but authorities warned more outages could follow due to fuel shortages.

Electricity was restored to large parts of Cuba on Tuesday, and by early Wednesday the national grid was back online across all provinces, according to state electricity company Union Electrica.

But power restoration will not bring long-term relief to the population, as the electricity production shortfall will continue to cause blackouts across much of the country, Felix Estrada, a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, warned on state television.

Worsening crisis

Power outages have been a feature of life for years in Cuba, but the situation has quickly deteriorated since the start of the year.

Food, medicine and drinking water are all in short supply as state services collapse.

The nation has imposed power cuts – over 30 hours at a stretch in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas – in a desperate attempt to conserve fuel.

Mr Trump has made it clear he would like to see a change of leadership in Cuba, pointing to Washington’s overthrow of Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro as a possible blueprint for what he would like to achieve in the Caribbean island.

Cuba has repeatedly said its political model is not up for discussion and vowed to resist any military invasion.

Cuba accuses US of ‘act of war’

Speaking at a UN General Assembly debate this week, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the US of waging “multidimensional, non-conventional warfare that has already lasted for almost seven decades now and has become ever more cruel and more ruthless during the last seven months”.

“Added to this, there is now an energy siege, which is equivalent to a naval blockade, which is an act of war,” he said at the UN’s headquarters in New York on Tuesday, US time.

Mr Rodriguez said damage brought by the US embargo on Cuba during the period of March 2025 through February 2026 amounts to a record $8 billion, a 7 per cent increase over the same period one year earlier, noting the figures do not include the “extreme impact” of the oil blockade the US imposed on Cuba in January.

“Paying attention to this ruthless crime is also a responsibility of the United Nations,” he said.

Each year since 1992, the General Assembly has adopted by a large majority a non-binding resolution calling for the lifting of the blockade imposed on Cuba.

Support weakened slightly last October, when 165 member states voted in favour and seven against, with a dozen abstentions.

Tuesday’s vote on whether to hold the debate on ending the embargo signalled potential further erosion, with 136 in favour, nine against, and 30 abstentions, including traditional supporters Germany and Canada.

‘A lie’: US hits back

US Ambassador Mike Waltz hit back at Cuba, insisting “there is no American blockade” around the nation.

“The only embargo in Cuba is the guillotine the regime keeps over the heads of its people,” he told the UN.

Mr Waltz said there was “no ring of navy warships … sitting around this island blocking trade or humanitarian aid going into Cuba”.

“It’s fake. It’s false. It’s a lie. Period,” he said.

Some speakers, while deploring US policy toward Cuba, pointed to Havana’s responsibilities.

“The dire situation of the Cuban people is not only due to the embargo,” said the European Union’s ambassador to the UN, Stavros Lambrinidis.

The envoy highlighted the need for authorities to make “meaningful political and economic reforms” in Cuba, including respect for human rights, while he condemned Havana’s alignment with Moscow in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Mr Rodriguez said recent diplomatic talks between the US and Cuba have not shown “any progress”.

He warned there would likely be none as long as US officials “treat Cuba as a vanquished or conquered adversary, as a colonial possession”.

– With AFP