US fuel blockade triggers nationwide blackout in Cuba

Agencies HAVANA

Cuba suffered a nationwide blackout on Monday as its national electrical grid suffered a total collapse. The energy ministry and grid operators are currently investigating the root cause of the system failure, while Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy confirmed that emergency microsystems have been activated to power vital public services.

The island's aging electricity infrastructure has struggled for years, but the crisis reached a breaking point after the US forced Cuba’s main suppliers to halt oil shipments. On Monday, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel criticised Washington on X, accusing the US of blocking fuel imports to intentionally induce "a social explosion through asphyxiation." The ongoing economic stranglehold has severely deteriorated the Cuban economy, impacting transportation, education, and medicine, while preventing vital tourism.

The US claims its sanctions are intended to force the Cuban government to open its hermetic political system and allow direct foreign investment. Although Cuba's National Assembly recently approved economic reforms, a US State Department spokesperson dismissed them as "modest, long overdue and ultimately superficial smoke signals."

Amid the escalating humanitarian crisis, high-level diplomatic and intelligence contacts have occurred. In May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Cuba’s spy chiefs in Havana, and the US Southern Command commander met senior Cuban military officials near Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. Washington has accused Cuba of hosting Russian and Chinese listening posts, a claim Cuba strongly denies.