Hurricane Oscar, a Category 1 storm, made landfall in Cuba’s eastern region on Sunday evening, adding to the island’s already severe hardships. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Oscar struck near Baracoa in the province of Guantanamo, bringing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour). As the storm made its westward advance, it left a trail of destruction, damaging roofs, walls, trees, and power lines, and causing waves up to 13 feet high. Baracoa, which bore the brunt of the storm, witnessed large-scale devastation, while power outages exacerbated the damage.
Nationwide Blackouts
Cuba is no stranger to power outages, but the country has been reeling from a nationwide blackout since Friday, when the island’s largest coal-fired power plant unexpectedly collapsed, crippling the national grid. The blackout plunged the majority of the country into darkness and disrupted daily life, with state-run utility UNE reporting repeated grid failures after attempts to restore power.
Read More: Cuba faces massive blackout amid worsening energy crisis
Millions of Cubans remain without power, and key services such as schools and businesses have been suspended until at least Wednesday. The outages have not only darkened homes but also disrupted public transportation and fuel supply, leaving residents to walk long distances amid the chaos.
Residents across the country are voicing their frustration. “God knows when the power will come back on,” said Rafael Carrillo, a mechanic in Havana. Others, like 56-year-old Adismary Cuza, worry about the immediate consequences of food spoilage, especially as the blackout stretches into its third day.
Economic Struggles and Infrastructure Issues
The blackout arrives at a time when Cuba is already facing its worst economic crisis since the 1990s, when the collapse of its key ally, the Soviet Union, devastated its economy. Inflation is rampant, and the nation is battling severe shortages of food, medicine, and fuel. Additionally, Cuba’s tourism sector, crucial to its economy, has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The island’s crumbling energy infrastructure is another factor compounding the crisis. Cuba relies on eight aging coal-fired power plants, and its grid has become increasingly vulnerable to failures. To stabilize power supply, the government has leased floating power plants from Turkey and has installed small diesel generators, but these measures have fallen short of demand.
Rising Public Anger
President Miguel Diaz-Canel, addressing the situation, has blamed the ongoing power crisis on difficulties in acquiring fuel, a result of the tightening of the U.S. trade embargo during Donald Trump’s presidency. However, frustration among the Cuban people has reached a boiling point. On Sunday evening, small protests erupted in several neighborhoods in Havana, with residents banging pots and pans and demanding the restoration of power.
In response, Diaz-Canel, dressed in a military uniform, warned against further disturbances. He stated that those responsible for unrest would be prosecuted “with the severity that revolutionary laws provide.” The Cuban government has a history of suppressing public dissent, as demonstrated in July 2021 when blackouts led to widespread protests that were met with a heavy crackdown.
Read More: Put nuclear weapons in Cuba – Russian MP
As Cubans wait for power to be restored, many are growing increasingly desperate. Anabel Gonzalez, a resident of Old Havana, pointed to her empty refrigerator and lamented, “My cell phone is dead, and look at my refrigerator. The little that I had has all gone to waste.” For most Cubans, the blackout is just another layer of suffering on top of economic mismanagement and international isolation.
