Cuban energy minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country’s power grid is in a “critical state,” with blackouts now lasting up to 22 hours a day. He said fuel reserves are “absolutely” exhausted and much of the island’s solar output is being lost to the unstable grid.
“This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country,” President Miguel Díaz‑Canel said in a separate televised address.
Since January, the US has maintained a near total energy embargo against the island nation, leveraging sanctions and tariffs on its fuel suppliers. The threats have choked off imports from Venezuela and Mexico, which previously provided two-thirds of the island nation’s energy needs. Only one Russian oil tanker has docked in Cuba since the blockade began.
UN rapporteurs last week called the embargo unlawful, saying it violated the Cubans’ right to development while undermining their rights to food, education, health, and water and sanitation.
