Blackouts Continue to Test Cubans
HAVANA TIMES – Although there hasn’t been a nationwide blackout in 2025 like those that occurred in the second half of 2024, daily power outages continue to define the chaotic situation in Cuba, with almost inhuman impacts—especially outside the capital.
Most parts of the country are without electricity for an average of 15 hours a day, a situation even worse than during the so-called Special Period (1990s crisis), when alternating eight-hour cycles were imposed.
This week, the government admitted that the problem is also affecting water supplies. State television reported that nearly three million people, about one-third of the island’s current population, were affected in recent days, with more than a quarter of them over 60 years old.
The crisis has sparked several large protests in the interior of the country, though none in Havana have yet been truly massive.
The capital has a far less aggressive blackout plan, usually not exceeding five hours without power, though it can happen more than once a day, including in the early morning.
However, last Tuesday saw a fairly significant revolt in Centro Habana, one of the city’s most densely populated municipalities.
According to official data, about 248,000 people in Havana lacked regular water supply because the power cuts disabled the pumping system—and all this amid reports of severe drought.
Experts estimate that the Cuban regime would need between 8 and 10 billion US dollars to overhaul the power grid—worn down by decades of use, lack of maintenance, and shortages of foreign currency to import essential materials—without even counting the fuel needed for daily operation.
In response, residents of Reina Street blocked traffic and built improvised barricades to demand immediate answers and concrete solutions from Miguel Díaz-Canel’s dictatorship.
The protesters shut down the busy avenue using empty buckets and other objects to denounce the lack of access to this basic service, which had been arriving only sporadically for about 15 days in thousands of homes in the area.
As usual, the protest ended with the arrival of police officers and two water trucks—known as pipas—to distribute water. Once again, it became clear that rebellion is the only thing that makes the authorities react to prevent bigger problems.
These crumbs continue to work, but the time has come to demand a complete change of regime—because that will be the only definitive solution, not just for this crisis, but for the numerous problems faced by ordinary Cubans.
This same month, protests have broken out in several provinces, many driven by the same lack of drinking water and prolonged blackouts—but they are quelled using the same formula.
Tourism decline continues
Meanwhile, Cuba continues to suffer from a decline in tourism—especially from Russia, which had come to the rescue after the pandemic and amid closer ties between the two countries that brought bilateral agreements, direct flights, and active promotion of Cuba as a Caribbean destination for Russian travelers.
Nevertheless, the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) reported that between January and July 2025, only 71,797 Russian tourists arrived, a 41.8% decrease compared to the same period last year, when there were 123,351.
Overall, between January and July 2025, Cuba received 1,123,987 international visitors—a 23.2% decline compared to the same period in 2024 (338,922 fewer tourists), with Russians accounting for the largest share of the drop.
Canada remains the leading market but also saw a 23.1% decrease, making it difficult to reach the projected goal of 2.6 million visitors this year.
Even specialists doubt whether Cuba will reach the 2.2 million visitors recorded in 2024—a figure already considered one of the worst in 17 years, excluding the Covid-19 pandemic years.
If the main engine of the Cuban economy doesn’t deliver as expected, it is logical to foresee a worsening of the overall situation, where citizens increasingly depend on money or goods sent by relatives abroad—mainly from the United States.
This is why the call circulating in Miami to stop sending remittances is gaining traction, urging people to cut off this lifeline because, one way or another, those dollars end up in the hands of the dictatorship, though people find countless unofficial ways to send money anyway.
It is the classic dilemma faced by Cuban emigrants for decades: help the family or cut off the regime. The government masks its role in remittance and package agencies, but everyone knows that in this country, you have no choice but to go through them, as the saying goes. You can send a few dollars to your family through third parties, but not food packages, power generators, or motorcycles, for example.
Thus, the resilience of the Cuban people is tested daily, suffocated by their harsh reality yet fearful of the regime’s fierce repression of any hint of a popular uprising, knowing that such an uprising is the only thing that could remove it from power.