Cuba suffered another nationwide blackout on Friday after its entire electricity grid experienced what authorities described as a "total disconnection," leaving millions of people without power.
The outage began just before 14:00 local time (18:00 GMT), triggered by a transmission fault combined with poor weather conditions in central Cuba, according to the national grid operator UNE.
Power was partially restored by late evening to priority areas, including zones near hospitals and water pumping stations in the capital Havana. The "gradual restoration" process was still ongoing on Saturday, UNE's national load dispatch director Felix Estrada said.
The blackout is at least the sixth — and by some accounts the seventh — major partial or total outage to hit Cuba this year. The country's ageing thermoelectric infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages have been under severe strain, a situation that has worsened significantly since January.
Cuba relies heavily on fuel imports. The US has imposed what amounts to a de facto energy blockade on the island, seizing oil shipments and threatening tariffs on countries that supply Havana with fuel. A new round of sanctions was announced in August as part of a broader pressure campaign against Cuba's leadership.
Cuba's regional ally Venezuela had been supplying the island with around 35,000 barrels of oil per day — roughly half of its needs — until those supplies were cut off following the US seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
The Cuban government has blamed its fuel crisis on the Trump administration and denounced all US sanctions. Washington, for its part, attributes the energy crisis to poor internal management and has accused Cuba of posing a "national security threat." US President Donald Trump has openly discussed toppling Cuba's leadership, including threatening a "friendly takeover" in March.
The repeated blackouts have had wide-ranging consequences. Food and medicine have become increasingly scarce, hospitals are struggling to function normally, and schools and government offices have been forced to close.
Residents of Havana described the situation in stark terms.
"Lately, it's becoming a habit," said Frank Lorenzo, a Havana resident. "Before it happened less frequently — once a month… just yesterday we were 24 hours without electricity, they turned it on for just an hour and it went down again."
"It's one thing after another: no water, no gas for cooking, no electricity," said Lidia Fernandez, a 36-year-old schoolteacher. "Honestly, I don't know how we haven't gone crazy."
Francisco Rodriguez, 78, said his home had already been without power for 28 hours on Friday and feared he would not have light "for several days."
The repeated outages have prompted rare protests across the island. Unauthorised demonstrations are illegal in Cuba, and those who defy the ban risk imprisonment.
