British Broadcasting CorporationCuba has endured one of its most difficult weeks in years after a nationwide blackout left some 10 million Cubans without power for days. Hurricane Oscar left a trail of destruction along the northeastern coast, killing multiple people and causing widespread damage, further exacerbating the Caribbean island’s problems. For some communities in Cuba, the energy crisis has become the new normal.
As Cuba enters its fourth day of power outages this week, Yusli Perez turns to the only source of fuel available to her: firewood.
Her community in Havana has not received regular deliveries of liquefied gas tanks for two months. So once the island’s entire power grid went down, causing a nationwide blackout, Usli was forced to take desperate measures.
“My husband and I traveled all over the city, but we couldn’t find charcoal anywhere,” she explains.
“We had to find a place on the street to collect firewood. Fortunately it was dry enough to use for cooking.
Usli nodded as he looked at the pieces of yucca slowly frying in a pot of warm oil. “We haven’t eaten in two days,” she added.
AFPSpeaking on Sunday, at the height of Cuba’s worst energy crisis in years, Vicente de la O Levy, the country’s energy and minerals minister, put the country’s power infrastructure at risk. blames what he calls the “cruel” U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.
He argued that the embargo made it impossible to import new parts to overhaul the grid, bring in enough fuel to run power stations, or even obtain credit in the international banking system.
The U.S. State Department counters that Cuba’s energy production problems are not Washington’s responsibility but are caused by mismanagement by the Cuban government itself.
The Cuban minister insisted that normal services would be restored soon. But no sooner had he finished speaking than the power grid suffered another total collapse, its fourth in 48 hours.
By evening, the full extent of the outage became clear.
Havana’s streets were plunged into near-total darkness, and residents sat on their doorsteps in the sweltering heat, their faces illuminated by their cellphones – as long as their batteries still had power.
Some, like restaurant worker Victor, were prepared to openly criticize the authorities.
“The people who run this country have all the answers,” he said. “But they have to explain themselves to the Cuban people.”
Specifically, what frustrated him most during the blackout was the state’s decision to invest heavily in tourism instead of energy infrastructure.
“They’ve built a lot of hotels in the past few years. Everyone knows that staying in a hotel doesn’t cost a few bucks. It costs $300 or $400 million.
“So why is our energy infrastructure collapsing?” he asked. “Either they don’t invest, or if they do, it doesn’t bring benefits to the people.”
Aware of growing discontent, President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on state television wearing the traditional olive green camouflage of Cuba’s revolutionary era.
If the message wasn’t clear enough, he directly warned people not to protest the blackouts. He said authorities would not “tolerate” vandalism or any attempt to “disrupt social order.”
AFPthis Protests in July 2021, hundreds arrested amid widespread demonstrations After experiencing a series of power outages, the situation is still fresh in our minds.
This time, there were only a few reports of isolated incidents.
Yet the question of where Cuba chooses to invest its scarce resources remains a bone of contention on the island.
“When we talk about energy infrastructure, we mean electricity generation and distribution or transmission. Each step requires significant investment,” said Caddo Torres, a Cuban economist at American University in Washington, DC.
Cuba’s electricity generation has recently fallen well below demand, meeting only about 60-70% of the country’s needs. Mr Torres said the shortage was a “huge and serious gap” that was now being felt across the island.
According to the government’s own data, Cuba’s national electricity production fell by about 2.5% in 2023 compared with the previous year, part of a downward trend that has seen power generation fall by 25% since 2019.
“It is important to understand that the problems with the energy grid last week did not happen overnight,” Mr Torres said.
Few understand this better than Marbeyis Aguilera. The 28-year-old mother of three is getting used to life without electricity.
For Mabeis, even if “normal service” is restored, it still means being without power for much of the day.
In fact, what residents of Havana have endured for several days is daily life in the village of Aguacate, in the province of Artemisa, just outside Havana.
“We were without power for six days,” she said, making coffee on a makeshift charcoal stove in her tin-roofed shack.
“Last night it came on for a few hours and then went out again. We had no choice but to cook like this or use firewood to keep the children warm.
Her two gas stoves and an electric stove sat unused on the top of the kitchen, filling the room with smoke. She said communities urgently need state aid and listed their most urgent priorities.
“First, electricity. Second, we need water. Food is running out. Dollars sent from abroad can buy food. But we don’t have that, so we can’t buy anything.
Mabeis said some of Aguacate’s main problems – food insecurity and water distribution – are exacerbated by the power outages.
Her husband’s physical work also requires electricity, and he can only wait at home for instructions to go to work. The Cuban government had been due to recall state workers by Thursday, but all non-essential work and schools are now suspended until next week to avoid another collapse of the power grid.
“It’s especially difficult for the children,” Mabeis added with tears in his eyes, “because when they say I want this or that, we have nothing to give them.”
In places like Aguacate, life without reliable energy is the new normal. Many people have been struggling with power shortages since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the island’s economy plunge.
Perhaps the biggest problem facing the Cuban state is that the sight of people cooking over firewood and charcoal in the 21st century is reminiscent of the rule of dictator Fulgencio Bastista, who was overthrown by revolutionaries six and a half years ago. under poverty.
Among them, on the northeastern coast, things got worse. While people were still dealing with power outages, Hurricane Oscar made landfall, bringing strong winds, flash flooding and ripped roofs off homes.
The storm may have passed. But Cubans know that the island’s energy infrastructure is in a precarious state and that the next nationwide blackout could come at any time.
