Communist Cuba is in total darkness today thanks to a power outage due to a lack of oil and a dilapidated energy infrastructure which has forced the government to shut down almost everything. The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant in the city of Matanzas suddenly and inexplicably shut down. Repair crews are desperately trying to get the plant working again with no timetable as to when power might be restored.
Schools, industry, and "cultural and nonessential activities" such as bars and discos are shuttered at least until Monday. The outage follows a late-night TV address by Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz on Thursday night.
“We have had to paralyze the economy to guarantee a minimum of electrical service,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in an announcement.
Early Saturday morning, after power was slowly being restored, another catastrophic failure occurred and the island was once again plunged into darkness.
Breaking: Cuba suffered another nationwide power outage Saturday morning just hours after officials said power was slowly being restored. pic.twitter.com/V796XIwDS6
— Patrick Oppmann CNN (@CNN_Oppmann) October 19, 2024
Venezuela has been supplying Cuba with about 80% of its oil in recent years. But now, the Venezuela oil industry is also suffering from neglect and poor maintenance and those deliveries to Cuba have been cut in half. Cuba has tried to buy from Mexico and Russia, but they can't pay in Cuban worthless pesos and its hard currency reserves are needed to buy food.
Viva socialism!
Cuba is in uncharted territory. Cubans will likely take to the streets to protest this latest stupidity from the Communist government, as they have after previous power problems. Cubans can endure food shortages. But shutting off the power in a tropical climate means no air is circulating in Cuban homes and the stifling heat may drive people out of doors and into the streets.
Miriam Leiva, a dissident journalist in Havana, said the lack of electricity was so bad that Mr. Marrero’s own video news conference was delayed by several hours because of technical difficulties, which viewers took as probably the result of problems with the power grid.
The fact that the nation’s normally secretive leaders took to the airways to share detailed updates underscored the severity of the crisis and showed that government officials were nervous and even desperate, she said.
Faced with an authoritarian government, widespread gasoline shortages and soaring food prices, more than 600,000 Cubans have fled to the United States since 2022, U.S. data shows.
“The blackouts have caused more local unrest than just about any other shortage,” William Leogrande, a Cuba specialist at American University said.
“This is a situation that has never happened before,” Ms. Leiva said, referring to the energy crisis. “What’s worse is that they have no idea when they are going to resolve it, or how.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin would normally be expected to step in and help. But Russia has its own problems and can't afford to give much aid to Cuba anyway. Similarly, the Chinese would like nothing better than to ingratiate themselves with a nation 90 miles from the U.S. But they have little oil to spare.
“There is no bread, and they don’t know when there will be any,” Ms. Leiva said. “Sometimes it’s because there’s no flour. Today it’s because there’s no electricity.”
You can bet that the socialist prime minister and president are feeling the pain of their citizens acutely. You can also bet they have the best electrical generators that money can buy with plenty of gasoline to run them.
Viva Fidel! Viva socialism!
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