Overview
- The national grid collapsed on Monday, plunging roughly ten million people across Cuba into a countrywide blackout, the state grid operator UNE said.
- UNE says the cause is unknown and is under formal investigation as crews begin partial restorations and prioritize power for hospitals and food production centers.
- The outage follows months of repeated, sometimes day-long cuts caused by an aging, underinvested electricity system whose failing plants are prone to cascading breakdowns.
- Journalists and officials report that U.S. policy tightened in January that penalizes states supplying oil to Cuba has cut fuel deliveries and prevented some power plants from running, a factor Havana cites in blaming Washington.
- The blackout increases pressure on daily life and the economy, has led Havana to seek help internationally, and produced unusual political signals such as Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro saying he would be open to direct talks with President Trump.