Cuba suffers third nationwide blackout in six months

Cuba has experienced its third nationwide blackout since the start of the year due to the US fuel blockade and energy crisis. While only 1 percent of demand can be met in the capital Havana, the population is struggling with days-long outages.

Scraper SystemJuly 07, 2026, 10:43 AM

Cuba suffers third nationwide blackout in six months

Cuba has been hit by a nationwide blackout for the third time since the start of the year. The outage in the island nation of about 10 million people was announced on Monday by the state-owned Electric Union. The agency said the cause of the blackout is under investigation.

Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy announced that protocols are being rapidly activated to restore electricity across the country. "In this complex situation worsened by the energy blockade we face, vital services continue to be protected," he said.

Grid operator UNE said it is supplying electricity to some vital services such as hospitals and food production centers, but as of the afternoon it could meet only 1 percent of the demand in the capital Havana.

US blockade deepens crisis

Cuba was already suffering fuel shortages before US President Donald Trump cut off oil shipments from Venezuela to the island in January. Trump's threat to impose tariffs on any country selling or supplying oil to Cuba significantly worsened the situation and deepened the island's financial crisis. As a result, blackouts and planned outages accelerated.

Since January, Washington has allowed only one oil tanker from Russia to breach the blockade and dock in Cuba, as part of a sanctions campaign aimed at ending more than sixty years of communist rule in Havana.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the US of "trying to provoke social unrest by strangling Cuba's fuel supply." In a social media post, he said, "Amid a genocidal energy blockade, the actions of electrical workers are heroic."

Population struggles with days-long outages

This blackout is the eighth power outage on the island of 9.6 million people since late 2024. The government is implementing planned outages nationwide to conserve fuel. In some parts of Havana, outages exceed 30 hours, while in rural areas they surpass 70 hours.

"Living like this is agony," Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old freelance social media community manager, told AFP news agency. Font said her neighborhood in Havana gets by on only "three or four hours of electricity" a day, but this blackout is worse because "you never know when the power will come back."

Cuba suffers third nationwide blackout in six months