As Cuba faces its third day of widespread power outages, small protests have erupted on the streets of the capital, Havana. These events come after efforts to restore electricity were thwarted once again, leaving millions without power and raising doubts about the government’s ability to resolve the crisis.
On October 18, Cuba’s largest power plant experienced a malfunction, causing the national grid to fail around noon. Reports from state-run media indicated that the grid experienced another outage early on October 19.
By the evening of October 19, authorities announced some progress in restoring power, yet the national grid failed for a third time that same night. They claimed that nearly 20% of the population had received power back, with priority given to public facilities such as transportation and hospitals.
However, shortly after the Havana Electric Company posted an update on social media platform Telegram, announcing, “At 10:25 PM, the national electrical system completely disconnected again,” this post was removed from their official account. The reasons for the deletion remain unclear, but as of the morning of October 20—three days into the outage—millions of residents still lacked electricity.
In a follow-up statement, the Ministry of Energy confirmed efforts to restore power, noting that the “western subsystem, including the capital Havana, is once again disconnected.”
The Ministry also indicated on X that “the process of rebuilding the power system remains complex.”
The repeated failures of the national grid highlight significant setbacks in the government’s attempts to restore electricity, exacerbating the ongoing shortages of food, medicine, and fuel that local residents have been enduring.
