The scenario for these residing in Cuba is rising extra dire by the day because the island grapples with dwindling oil provides to gasoline on a regular basis life, specialists on Cuban-U.S. relations informed ABC Information.
On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Cuba issued a safety alert concerning the nation’s worsening energy disaster — stating that the nationwide electrical grid “is more and more unstable.”
Extended energy outages, each scheduled and unscheduled, have been occurring every day throughout the island, together with within the capital metropolis of Havana, U.S. officers say. The outages are impacting water provide, lighting, refrigeration and communications.
A scarcity of gasoline can be affecting transportation and inflicting lengthy traces at gasoline stations, the U.S. embassy stated. Cuban Minister of Power and Mines Vicente de la O Levy announced throughout a press convention on Wednesday that the island had run out of gasoline reserves.
Havana skilled a blackout that day that exceeded 20 hours, O Levy stated.
“We’ve got completely no gasoline; we’ve got completely no diesel,” he stated.
That is the primary grid failure Cuba has skilled since early March, when Cuba skilled the primary main blackout following the Trump administration’s blockade.
The present vitality disaster started on Jan. 3, when the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his spouse from the nation and compelled the Venezuelan authorities to cease sending oil to Cuba.
Venezuela was offering about 20% of Cuba’s complete vitality imports, William M. LeoGrande, a professor of presidency at American College and specialist in U.S.-Cuban relations, informed ABC Information. The info varies on the precise variety of barrels per day Cuba consumes, however in accordance with Worldometer, a reference web site that gives real-life statistics and counters, the quantity stands at about 112,423 barrels per day. In 2025, Venezuela was supplying Cuba with about 26,500 barrels per day, Reuters reported — or about 24% of the every day consumption.
Folks cook dinner with firewood throughout a blackout in Havana on Could 13, 2026. Cuba blamed the USA for the “notably tense” scenario in its energy grid on Could 13, 2026, which has been tormented by extended blackouts, whereas Washington as soon as once more provided $100 million in assist to the island.
Yamil Lage/AFP through Getty Photos
The lack of provide of oil from Venezuela was a “massive blow,” as Cuba solely produces about 40% of its oil wants domestically, LeoGrande stated, including that Cuba produces heavy oil, which comprises a excessive sulfur content material that damages the infrastructure and exacerbates breakdowns on {the electrical} grid.
About 80% of Cuba’s electrical energy is generated from vegetation run on pure gasoline — about 20% from renewable vitality, together with a rising quantity of photo voltaic vitality, LeoGrande stated.
The looming disaster worsened when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an govt order on Jan. 29 declaring a national security emergency on Cuba and threatening to impose tariffs to international locations that present oil to the island nation.
The chief order states that the “insurance policies, practices, and actions of the Authorities of Cuba represent an uncommon and extraordinary risk, which has its supply in entire or substantial half exterior the USA, to the nationwide safety and international coverage of the USA.”
Trump additionally accused the Cuban regime of offering assist for “quite a few hostile international locations, transnational terrorist teams, and malign actors opposed to the United States,” together with Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Aside from one Russian tanker, no else has dared to problem the U.S. on that,” LeoGrande stated.
The collapse of the Cuban electrical grid is just not a current phenomenon, Alejandro de la Fuente, chair of the Cuba Research Program at Harvard College, informed ABC Information. Cuba had been going through more and more common blackouts over the previous 5 years.
Cuba’s oil-run electrical energy vegetation are greater than 40 years previous and have undergone little or no capital upkeep, stated Jorge R. Piñon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Power Program at The College of Texas at Austin’s Power Institute.
However the present downside has now been compounded by the U.S.-imposed blockade, Piñon informed ABC Information.
“The disaster has been compounded by the punitive actions of this administration which have made the scenario borderline determined,” De la Fuente stated. “They’ve pushed Cuba into what I might now describe as a humanitarian disaster.”
Kids block Boyeros Avenue because of a scarcity of electrical energy after Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a partial collapse early Thursday, reducing energy throughout japanese Cuba, in Havana, Cuba, Could 14, 2026.
Norlys Perez/Reuters
On Wednesday, a breakdown on {the electrical} grid took out energy to a lot of the japanese half of the nation. Lights usually tend to exit in east Cuba as a result of it has a poorer demographic of residents, and energy traces that had been broken in Hurricane Helena in September 2024 have nonetheless not been repaired, De la Fuente stated.
Trump’s sanctions have particularly impacted Cuba’s meals provide, as a result of the island imports the overwhelming majority of its meals, LeoGrande stated. Cuba imports 70% to 80% of its home meals necessities, with most imports slated for social safety packages, in accordance with the World Food Programme.
“You are speaking about the potential of actually mass hunger, if that stands,” LeoGrande stated. “The scenario there may be completely determined.”
Because of the vitality disaster, Cuba’s financial system is grinding to a halt, the specialists stated. Grocery retailer cabinets are empty. Hospitals can barely perform. The dearth of diesel has stalled the agricultural sector, marine vessels and vans, Piñon stated.
When LeoGrande was in Cuba in December, among the solely vehicles working had been electrical automobiles, he famous. Relations of De la Fuente who’re in Cuba have had possibly two hours of electrical energy inside a 36-hour timeframe, he stated.
Nobody on the island, apart from sure high-ranking officers, can escape the challenges introduced by the dearth of oil, Piñon stated.
Folks stroll previous a hearth set by demonstrators throughout a protest towards the dearth of vitality and blackouts within the Lawton neighborhood in Havana, on Could 14, 2026. Cuba blamed the USA for the “notably tense” scenario in its electrical energy grid, because the east of the nation was hit by one other widespread energy minimize on Could 14, 2026.
Yamil Lage/AFP through Getty Photos
The scenario has sparked outrage amongst Cuban residents, who’ve begun to reveal towards the extended blackouts, the specialists stated.
The U.S. embassy started receiving stories of protests all through Havana, leading to “aggressive police repression” towards the protesters. Video taken in Havana exhibits fires burning on account of the demonstrations.
“You are beginning to see the breakdown of social order,” LeoGrande stated.
Whereas the protests haven’t been directed towards U.S. residents, officers urged People to keep away from giant gatherings in addition to take precautions by conserving gasoline, water and cell phone cost.
“Be ready for vital disruption,” The U.S. embassy stated.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with top Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday and mentioned intelligence cooperation, financial stability and safety “all towards the backdrop that Cuba can not be a secure haven for adversaries within the Western hemisphere,” a CIA official informed ABC Information.
Cuban International Minister Bruno Rodriguez warned that the U.S. was on a “harmful path” that would result in a “massacre in Cuba” in an interview with ABC News last week.
“Hopefully an answer right here will likely be coming quickly,” Piñon stated.
