Chronic blackouts are difficult enough for Cubans to deal with, but imagine having no electricity at all. One family in Havana has been in the dark for a year due to the corruption and incompetence of socialism.
Havana family living without electricity for the past year due to the lack of transformers
Yanela Hernández Álvarez and her family have been without electricity for almost a year. Since September 2022, when the transformer that provided electricity to their home burned out, the Electric Company of Boyeros has claimed it lacks the resources to replace it.
The house, a property that used to be the old water pumping station supplying the Villena-Revolución Agricultural Polytechnic Institute, is the only one powered by this transformer.
“There were a few days of rain with thunder, and we lost power. We reported it, a week passed, two, three, and they always told us the vehicle was on its way. So we went to the Electric Company,” explained Hernández Álvarez.
A week after visiting the state-owned entity, several workers arrived at her home and discovered the burnt-out transformer. They promised to return, but they never did.
“We went back to the Company, and they told us that there was a critical situation with transformers in the country, and we should remain patient, but up until today, nothing,” said the young woman, who is now pregnant.
Although the family suggested to the Electric Company that they replace the transformer with one of the unused ones nearby, the company never responded.
“The old Vaquería 5 has three transformers, Vaquería 4 also has two transformers at the entrance, unused,” clarified Miguel Ángel Bermúdez Hernández, the father of the interviewed young woman.
Yanela Hernández Álvarez noted that on September 22, it will have been a year since her family has lived without electricity. Since the transformer that provided them service stopped working, the young woman has been living in distress, fearing that this might affect the health of her unborn child.
“If I had the money, I would search, and I know I would find it; if other things can be found, I think a transformer can be found too, but I imagine the cost,” the young woman told CubaNet.
In addition to the lack of electricity, another issue affecting this family is the supply of clean water. “I had to buy a hose and lay a connection from the dairy farm [about a kilometer away] all the way here, underground. When my tank runs dry, I have to go beg them to give me water, even if it’s just for an hour,” shared the father of the young woman, who has been living in the old pumping station since 1990.
If they’re complaining, it can only mean one thing: bad Negroes, insufficiently grateful to Massah Castro.