An islandwide power outage has plunged Cuba into darkness once again, as the country’s worsening fuel shortage and ageing electricity grid continue to cripple essential services.
State-run utility, the Electric Union, says the cause of Monday’s blackout is under investigation, while the Ministry of Energy and Mines says emergency measures have been activated to restore power.
Cuba has faced severe fuel shortages since January, after US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries supplying it with oil, thereby worsening its economic crisis.
The government says Cuba produces only about 40 per cent of the fuel it needs, and supplies from a Russian oil shipment, delivered in March, were exhausted by the end of April.
The country has also been relying on scheduled power cuts, with some communities going without electricity for more than 24 hours.
Monday’s outage follows a nationwide blackout in March and another major power failure affecting eastern Cuba in May.