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- October 12, 202619°
- BIST10012,151-0.94%
- USD49.220.00%
- EUR55.21+0.28%
- GOLD4,192.60-0.56%
- INTEREST37.00%-1.00
- BITCOIN82,900-0.92%
- October 12, 202619°
Cuba hit by second island-wide blackout in a week
Cuba suffered a nationwide blackout for the second time in less than a week. The island, under a fuel blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump, is now facing its fourth major outage since the start of the year.
Cuba faced an island-wide blackout for the second time in less than a week. The state-owned power company Unión Eléctrica announced that the outage, which began at 4:30 pm local time on Friday, affected the entire country.
No official explanation was given for the outage, which followed a similar blackout on Monday. Since the start of the year, the island has recorded four major blackouts in total, two of which occurred in March.
Infrastructure problems and Trump's blockade
Blackouts are frequent in Cuba, where much of the energy infrastructure dates back to the Cold War era between 1960 and 1980. However, the crisis deepened when US President Donald Trump effectively cut off fuel supplies to Cuba in January.
The United States has maintained the longest trade embargo in modern history against Cuba since the 1960s. In his second term, Trump took steps aimed at regime change on the communist-ruled island.
On January 3, Trump authorized a military operation against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of the Cuban government. The operation resulted in Maduro's abduction and transfer to New York; he remains in detention on drug and weapons charges.
After Maduro was removed from office, Trump declared that Venezuela would no longer send oil or money to Cuba. In an executive order issued on January 29, he designated Cuba as "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States and threatened high tariffs on countries that supply fuel to the island.
Since then, only one Russian oil tanker has reached Cuba, and that was in March.
Humanitarian impact and UN warning
According to the International Energy Agency, as of 2023 Cuba could only produce 40 percent of the oil it consumes, with the rest coming from abroad. Experts warn that the fuel shortage will cripple public services like transportation, adversely affecting the civilian population.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement in June that infant mortality rates had nearly doubled in recent months. "The fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and the tightening of extraterritorial sanctions are directly harming the Cuban people, especially the most vulnerable," Türk said. "Children are dying because doctors cannot access basic medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable."
The US position
The Trump administration, on the other hand, blames the Cuban government’s mismanagement for the blackouts. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera in March, "We have done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime."
Shift toward renewable energy
Before the fuel blockade, Cuba had been planning to shift some of its energy infrastructure from fossil fuels to solar and other renewable sources. It accelerated this transition with solar technology imported from China, the United States' main economic rival.
Nevertheless, according to 2022 estimates, renewable energy meets only about 18 percent of Cuba's total energy consumption. The country aims to generate roughly a quarter of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
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