Sanction-Hit Cuba Weathers Third Blackout in Two-Week Span

Cuba was rushing to restore power late Tuesday after suffering its third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days, amid aging infrastructure and US fuel sanctions that have crippled the nation of 10 million people.

(Bloomberg) — Lea la nota en español Cuba was rushing to restore power late Tuesday after suffering its third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days, amid aging infrastructure and US fuel sanctions that have crippled the nation of 10 million people. The Ministry of Energy said a problem at the 500-megawatt Felton power plant caused the cascading outage, which swept the island shortly after 11 a.m.

The communist-run nation also suffered a national outage on July 6 and another on July 11. On both occasions, the government said a near-total US fuel blockade had pushed the grid to the brink. But even when the system is fully functioning, it’s running a severe deficit.

Shortly before Tuesday’s blackout, the Union of Electrical Workers estimated the system would only cover about half the daytime demand of 2,700 megawatts. The Trump administration has been hammering the island with sanctions, and in January it cut off all major fuel shipments, with the exception of one Russian tanker. The US says the maximum pressure campaign is designed to force out the 67-year-old regime.

Cuba has said it’s willing to make economic reforms and negotiate with Washington, but that its one-party system is not up for debate. While the government’s political leadership didn’t directly address the blackout, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos de Cossio said the country was suffering due to US policies. “How does punishing Cuba benefit US citizens?” he wrote on X as crews were still trying to restore power.

“How does their daily security, standard of living, affordability or way of life improve by imposing an economic siege on the Cuban people through tariffs against third countries, and threats to business and companies all over the world?” (Updates with comments from the Ministry of Energy in second paragraph, comments from De Cossio in final pagragraph)