Discontent Grows in Cuba with a New Record of Blackouts

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The power blackouts in Cuba are reaching a record never seen in recent years. On Friday, March 8, the official press reported, “there was a deficit of electricity generation for 24 hours, and it has not been possible to restore the power this morning.” The deficit is unprecedented since the energy crisis escalated two years ago.

For Saturday, the outlook was not much better, and the blackouts continue throughout the country affecting both residential customers and production centers.

The figures included in a statement of the UNE (Electric Company of Cuba) spoke for themselves. Dozens of generation plants, large and small, are out of service some for breakdowns and maintenance and others for a lack of fuel.   

Thus, citizens are desperate, and rumors of demonstrations run throughout the Island. Protests broke out in August 2022 in Nuevitas, Camaguey when the prolonged blackouts became intolerable. Today’s are even longer. 

The repression unleashed after the demonstrations in Nuevitas – combined with the repression and mass arrests that occurred during and after the July 11, 2021 protests, may explain why, for the moment, the frustration is only expressed in complaints on social networks. One of the posts that asked users about the place and time of their power outages was immediately followed by hundreds of comments.

“Four hours with power and twenty without,” said one of them, corroborated in some areas of the Island, such as Santiago de Cuba, by the official newspaper Sierra Maestra.

In Güines, Mayabeque, another commentator said that the power had been missing this Friday “since 8 at night, and still nothing after 12 hours without power. Yesterday we had only 3 hours during the day with power.” In the same province, in San Jose de las Lajas, the power went off at 5 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, and after two hours it went off again for 10 more hours. In Sancti Spíritus, there were places with up to 14 hours of blackouts.

The complaints cover the entire national territory. In Bayamo, Granma, people also reported 14 hours of blackout; in Minas, Camagüey, up to 18 consecutive hours. In the municipality of Cespedes in Camagüey, a resident complained: “From yesterday until now they gave us three hours of power. They only put it on from 2 to 5 in the morning; when no one is cooking or awake.”

Havana, which until a few days ago was free of the power cuts, now suffers from them on a daily basis. Four hours in a row of no power is predicted, for example, in Nuevo Vedado, where the editorial staff of this newspaper is located.

“These blackouts make life miserable, but I really can’t complain,” concedes a woman living in Central Havana. “The power has been off for several hours two days in a row, and the water pump in the building didn’t allow the water to fill the tank enough for me to wash. However, I imagine that those poor people (in other places) who had only two hours of power must be on the verge of suicide.”

Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba

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