Intersection of Carlos III and Infanta in Central Havana, with traffic lights out during the blackout. / 14ymedio
It is the fourth collapse of Cuba’s national electrical grid this year and the ninth since October 2024.
By 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – Cuba’s work week began with the total collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) on Monday, and it ended the same way this Friday. This time, the announcement from Cuba’s Electric Company was even briefer than the last: “4:30 p.m. Total collapse of the National Electric System,” the state utility posted on social media. It is the fourth collapse of the SEN so far this year and the ninth since October 2024.
The comments that quickly flooded the post reflected not only the resigned attitude with which Cubans now face the country’s energy crisis, but also the fact that many of them did not even have electricity to learn about it. “When had they turned it back on?” “Oh, was it working? I hadn’t noticed,” and “It was up and running?” were among the reactions.
Even when the national grid is operable most Cubans suffer daily blackouts of 15 to 30 hours, some even longer.
While ordinary Cubans face the reality of even greater blackouts, the regime sees something else: the possibility of protests. The timing is especially significant, coming on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the large-scale July 11, 2021, protests. In recent days, as the energy crisis has worsened, demonstrations have multiplied.
14ymedio witnessed one of the latest protests this Wednesday, in broad daylight. Dozens of residents in the Havana municipality of Regla, exhausted not only by the lack of electricity but also by the lack of running water, gathered outside the local Government and Communist Party headquarters demanding answers. Under the blazing sun, this newspaper observed women with children, elderly people, men in flip-flops, motor scooters, electric tricycles, a patrol car from the Police Operational Guard, and several uniformed officers attempting to keep tensions under control.
That same Wednesday, Havana awoke bearing the marks of several other protests. At the intersection of Belascoaín and Animas streets in Central Havana, ashes, stones, pieces of wood, charred cardboard, and the remains of burned garbage still littered the pavement. Photographs taken by 14ymedio show a street still bearing the scars of a night of tension fueled by growing public frustration.
Videos of pot-banging protests, blocked streets, and burning trash have multiplied across different parts of the capital. In Central Havana, residents took to the streets after blackouts that, according to reports shared on social media, had lasted more than 80 hours. Protests also broke out in the municipality of La Lisa after more than 40 hours without electricity. In Alamar, in East Havana, groups of residents banged pots and pans and set garbage ablaze in the middle of public streets.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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