The nationwide energy grid comes again on after Cuba’s 10 million individuals had been plunged into darkness in a single day.
Printed On 18 Mar 2026
Cuba has reconnected its energy grid and introduced on-line its largest oil-fired energy plant, power officers mentioned, placing an finish to a nationwide blackout that lasted greater than 29 hours amid a United States transfer to choke off the island’s gasoline provide.
After the nation’s 10 million individuals had been plunged into darkness in a single day, the Caribbean island’s nationwide energy grid had absolutely come again on-line by 6:11pm (22:11 GMT) on Tuesday. Nevertheless, officers mentioned energy shortages might proceed as a result of not sufficient electrical energy is being generated.
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Along with slicing off oil gross sales to Cuba, US President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric in opposition to the Communist-run island, saying on Monday he may do something he needed with the nation.
A US State Division official blamed the Cuban authorities for the grid collapse, calling blackouts a “symptom of the failing regime’s incompetence”.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel fired again at Washington, criticising its “nearly every day public threats in opposition to Cuba”.
“They intend to and announce plans to take over the nation, its assets, its properties, and even the very economic system they search to suffocate as a way to pressure us to give up,” Diaz-Canel wrote on social media on Tuesday night time, shortly after energy returned nationwide.
Cuba has but to say what prompted Monday’s nationwide grid failure, the primary such collapse because the US lower off the island’s oil provide from Venezuela and threatened to slap tariffs on nations that ship gasoline to the nation.
By noon on Tuesday, grid staff efficiently fired up the Antonio Guiteras energy plant, a decades-old behemoth that underpins the nation’s energy grid.
Each day blackouts
Electrical energy era, hampered by dire gasoline shortages and antiquated energy vegetation, remains to be far under what is critical to fulfill demand, offering scarce aid for Cubans already exhausted from months of blackouts.
Most Cubans, together with these within the capital, Havana, had been seeing 16 or extra hours of blackout every day even earlier than the newest grid collapse.
“It impacts each side of our lives,” mentioned Havana resident Carlos Montes de Oca, noting that the outages had thrown easy requirements equivalent to meals and water provide into disarray. “All we will do is sit, wait, learn a e-book… in any other case the stress will get to you.”
A lot of Cuba was overcast by way of the afternoon on Monday as a chilly entrance neared the island, casting shadows on the photo voltaic parks that account for a 3rd or extra of daytime era.
Cuba has obtained solely two small vessels carrying oil imports this 12 months, in keeping with LSEG ship monitoring knowledge seen by Reuters on Monday. On Tuesday, a Hong Kong-flagged tanker that might be carrying gasoline to Cuba resumed navigation after suspending its course weeks in the past within the Atlantic Ocean, the info confirmed.
Cuba and the US have opened talks aimed toward defusing the disaster, among the many most acute since 1959, when Fidel Castro compelled a US ally from energy on the island.
Neither facet has offered particulars of the continuing negotiations, though Trump has portrayed Cuba as determined to make a deal.
Cubans, no strangers to hardship, noticed little alternative however to remain calm.
“We nonetheless don’t have energy at my home,” mentioned Havana resident Juana Perez. “However we’ll take it in stride, as we Cubans all the time do.”
