Overview
- The Energy Ministry reported a second nationwide blackout within four days on Friday and said emergency restoration protocols were activated with hospitals given priority.
- The Cuban government publicly blames recent U.S. pressure and sanctions — including threats of tariffs on countries selling oil to Cuba — for a near halt in foreign fuel deliveries that worsened the crisis.
- State utility Unión Eléctrica (UNE) has not released a full technical explanation, and long‑standing problems such as aging plants and years of underinvestment have left the grid fragile and prone to large outages.
- After the prior blackout, hundreds of residents in Havana neighborhoods including Jaimanitas and Santa Fe protested for restored power, while authorities reported that cities such as Santiago de Cuba were left without electricity.
- Officials warn the repeated outages raise acute humanitarian risks by disrupting hospitals, water and other essential services, and the crisis could deepen if fuel shipments do not resume or repairs to generation capacity are stalled.