Cuba’s power grid collapses after weeks of US oil blockade

By Patrick Oppmann, Michael Rios, CNN

Havana (CNN) — Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a total collapse on Monday, the country’s power operator said, marking the latest nationwide blackout in recent years, and the first since the US effectively shut off the flow of oil to the island of roughly 10 million people.

Efforts are underway to restore power across the country, the state-owned operator said, adding that no faults detected in the electrical units operating at the time the grid collapsed.

Nationwide power outages have been reported frequently over the past few years. Cuban officials have previously attributed them to US economic sanctions, though critics have also faulted a lack of investment in the island’s ailing generation system.

Cuba heavily relies on oil for electricity generation. The effective blockade of fuel shipments has worsened the country’s energy crisis, causing intermittent power cuts, a rationing of medical supplies and a decrease in tourism, officials have said. Fuel prices have skyrocketed so much that gas can be as much as $9 a liter on the unofficial market, meaning it costs more than $300 to fill up a car’s gas tank, which is more than most Cubans earn in a year.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

“Officials in the US (government) must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said in response to Monday’s blackout.

On Saturday, residents of the central Cuban city of Morón took to the streets to protest problems with the electricity supply and access to food.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Friday that no oil had been delivered to the island in the last three months. He also said on Friday that Cuban officials have held talks with the United States to “identify the bilateral problems that need a solution.”

“The impact (of the blockade) is tremendous. It is most brutally manifested in these energy issues,” the president said. “This causes anguish among the population.”

In response to the energy crisis, the government has announced emergency measures including reduced school hours, postponing major sporting and cultural events and cutting transport services.

Many government-run hospitals have cut services, and lack of fuel and working dump trucks has caused trash to pile up across whole neighborhoods.

On nearly every street corner, conversations center on when power cuts are taking place and for how long. At night in Havana, the stars are often clearly visible as most of the city is swathed in near total darkness.

Sales of fuel at government-run gas stations are now highly restricted. Only tourists, diplomats and Cubans who have been granted a slot using an online system are allowed to fill up usually after waiting for hours.

Recent data shows a steep decline in internet traffic in Cuba amid the energy crisis, according to Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network monitoring company Kentik. “At the latest measurement, Cuba is at only one-third of its normal traffic volume at this time of day,” he told CNN.

Canada’s largest airline Air Canada announced last month that it was suspending flights to Cuba due to a shortage of aviation fuel on the island. The pause in service is expected to last until November 1, it said.

US President Donald Trump said last week that Cuba is in “deep trouble” and that the United States may or may not be a part of a “friendly takeover” of the country. “They’re down to, as they say, fumes,” he said.

On Monday, Trump suggested his administration was open to “taking Cuba,” though he offered scant details on what a hypothetical military operation against the country would look like when pressed by reporters.

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor,” he said. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”

The US disrupted Cuba’s oil supplies from Venezuela after removing that country’s president from power in early January.

Later, it threatened tariffs on other nations that export oil to Cuba, claiming that Havana posed an “extraordinary threat” by aligning itself with “hostile countries and malign actors, (and) hosting their military and intelligence capabilities.”

Cuba has rejected the claim and urged the US to ease its pressure campaign.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Billy Stockwell and Donald Judd contributed reporting.