Cuba goes dark as the energy crisis deepens

Andrea Rodriguez Associated Press HAVANA A total blackout hit Cuba on Wednesday the latest in a series of outages blamed on aging infrastructure and fuel shortages at power plants It was the second island-wide outage this year with three other blackouts announced late last year The Ministry of Force and Mines stated on social platform X the latest outage could be tied to a malfunction at one of Cuba s biggest thermoelectric plants Argelio Abad the ministry s vice minister reported on state TV the grid shut down after an apparently erroneous message warning of overheating disconnected the thermoelectric plant He added that executives directly began to build a type of microsystem to deliver electricity to infrastructure that provides basic services The ministry commented crews were working to restore power to the island of roughly million people with electricity returning to hospitals food production plants and other high-priority businesses Prime Minister Manuel Marrero made an appearance at Cuba s state-run power company and demanded Cubans for their trust as he explained on state TV that electricity would be restored gradually Chosen Cubans like -year-old Mayt Garc a inferred they would be without power for a couple of days She noted she was outside taking in the fresh air as she waited for electricity to return If you buy something you don t know if you ll be able to keep it A large number of people s food has spoiled Garc a declared of items in refrigerators and freezers Havana the country s capital of certain two million people appeared calm although countless ventured out to try and find certain items before dark I came to get bread commented Katie C rdenas a -year-old populace employee adding that she feared being left without basic goods after the outage The city s traffic lights were dark and various social and cultural sessions were suspended but gas stations continued to offer fuel via pumps Internet amenity in Havana was particularly slow or dropped intermittently in several areas The persistence of power outages over the years prompted certain Cubans to prepare for them Related Articles Burned batteries from Moss Landing power plant fire will be trucked to Nevada Landfill that closed in continues to leak trash into Pacific Ocean Pickett Fire Containment on region s largest wildfire this year grows to Work begins to remove and recycle burned batteries from wrecked Moss Landing power plant Federal judge rules Trump administration cannot reallocate billions meant for calamity mitigation I have a small power plant but several people are complaining because they will be affected Aurelio Chac n commented In fresh months plenty of well-off individuals small entrepreneurs and residents with family abroad who are able to send goods have installed solar panels or rechargeable devices Earlier this week an outage hit Cuba s eastern region leaving people from Las Tunas to Guant namo in the dark for several hours In February the administration suspended classes and work sessions for two days due to a shortage in electricity generation There is a severe economic and power supply predicament in Cuba It has worsened in current years due to U S sanctions intended to put pressure on the island to change its political model The sanctions have prevented the Caribbean nation from having sufficient foreign currency to buy fuel or buy equipment to repair its aging thermoelectric plants plenty of of which have been operating for more than years