For the second time in 24 hours, the electric grid in communist Cuba collapsed, plunging the nation of more than 10 million into darkness again. The second massive power outage came on Saturday morning after some power was briefly restored after the first outage on Friday morning. The entire island has been paralyzed, with no radio, television, or internet.
Cuba’s electrical grid shut down again early Saturday, leaving the island without electricity after authorities tried but failed to restore power following an earlier nationwide blackout on Friday.
The island’s state company Electric Union reported a second “total outage” at 6:15 a.m., just hours after officials reported they had restored power in a few “microsystems” all over the island.
The entire country first lost electricity Friday morning after a major power plant failure, just hours after Prime Minister Manuel Marrero warned about an “energy emergency” and coming blackouts. In a television broadcast Thursday evening, he said that the government had “paralyzed” most of the economy to provide a minimum of electricity to the public.
The Electric Union did not initially say what caused the second total blackout, but officials had earlier said the process of restoring service should not be rushed.
The island-wide blackout only served to exacerbate an already tense situation for Cubans, who have been suffering through chronic power outages that can last almost an entire day. That frustration was manifested in pot-banging protests that broke out in several neighborhoods in Havana.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
Residents in several areas of Havana took to the streets in peaceful protests on Saturday night, after more than 30 hours of a widespread blackout in Cuba, which began Friday morning due to an unexpected disconnection at the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant.
Several social media posts reported that people in Guanabacoa were out in the streets on Saturday, though no images were shown, possibly due to the lack of internet connection. However, a local source confirmed to DIARIO DE CUBA that in that Havana municipality, people were banging pots (“toque de cazuelas”) on both Friday and Saturday night.
In San Francisco de Paula, dozens of Cubans blocked traffic, standing in the middle of the street and banging pots, as seen in a video shared on Facebook by activist Juan Moreno, director of the community media outlet Amanecer Habanero, part of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (ICLEP).
Another video shared on Facebook by independent journalist Daniel Benítez showed another protest in which Cubans banged pots on Saturday night in Lawton. In that neighborhood, part of the Diez de Octubre municipality, the blackout began between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. on Friday, at least in the area where Berta Soler, leader of the female opposition group Damas de Blanco, lives. DIARIO DE CUBA spoke with her on Saturday afternoon.
On Havana’s Malecón and in the Bahía neighborhood of the Habana del Este municipality, pots were also heard as Cubans demanded the restoration of the electrical service, as seen in videos shared by activist Félix Llerena and a user identified as El Mákina on Facebook and the social network X.
The massive blackout, however, did not affect all Cubans. According to a photo shared with Diario de Cuba, the headquarters of the Cuban Communist Party in Matanzas still had power. Obviously, the facility has generators as a backup power supply, a luxury normal Cubans have no access to.
My translation:
While the entire country of Cuba was in darkness due to the unexpected disconnection of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant this Friday, the headquarters of the Communist Party (PCC) in the Versalles Popular Council, in the province of Matanzas, had electricity, as shown in a photo taken during the blackout and sent by a local source to DIARIO DE CUBA.
“Look at this image right now. It’s the Municipal PCC headquarters in Versalles. The people are without power, and they are wasting it there,” the source wrote.
This catastrophe is the direct result of the corruption and criminal neglect of the Castro dictatorship, which for 65 years has prioritized its own survival and enrichment over the Cuban people. Darkness, misery, suffering, and destruction. This is life in communist Cuba. This is socialism in action.
Fine. Let the “diaspora” pay for solar panels for every home. Problem solved. See how easy it is?
Can you say total system failure? Sure you can. And I don’t mean just electricity. Something’s gotta give.