Cuba remains in the dark

After weeks of frequent blackouts, the national electrical grid suffered a “total disconnection” last week, according to the Ministry of Energy.

The blackouts are getting worse, and some days the entire island is plunged into almost total darkness.

Cuba generates most of its electricity from oil, and for almost three decades, Venezuelan oil has been the country’s energy lifeline.

After the capture of the Cuban president Nicolas Maduro In January, the Trump administration ordered Venezuela to suspend oil supplies to Cuba.

America soon put pressure on Mexico so that it would also stop its shipments.

No other country has come to Cuba’s rescue with oil supplies.

U.S. officials are using the energy crisis to put pressure on Cuban leaders, even as some in Cuba warn that repeated blackouts could make it difficult for Cubans to get food, running water and medical care.

The Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canelpublicly acknowledged this month that his government has been holding talks with Washington in an effort to find solutions to Cuba’s conflict with the United States.

The capital, Havana, is usually a priority in electricity generation as it is the seat of government.

But as the energy crisis worsens, it is not exempt from suffering power outages either.

The entire city is feeling the repercussions.

Garbage accumulates because garbage trucks are stopped due to lack of fuel.

Without refrigeration, meat and dairy products spoil in homes and markets.

Because Havana’s water system relies on electric pumps, many residents have been left without running water and now line up with jugs at gravity-fed community cisterns, according to Jorge R. Piñon, a petroleum expert at the University of Texas who monitors the Cuban energy industry.

Public health authorities have postponed tens of thousands of surgeries, and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy have had their treatments interrupted by power outages and lack of refrigerated medications.

In tourist areas such as Varadero, Cayo Coco and Cayo Santa María, where numerous beach hotels and spa complexes are located, the electricity practically remains on.

Unlike residential areas, which rely on the poor national electricity grid, hotels in these locations have their own generators, and fuel supply is a top priority for these facilities, along with that of hospitals.

This is because tourism remains a crucial source of foreign exchange for the Cuban government, even after some airlines suspended flights to Cuba due to a shortage of jet fuel at major airports, caused by the US blockade.

They are some of the main beneficiaries of recent efforts to create a decentralized network of small solar panels using Chinese technology.

This means workers at these resorts travel from places with little electricity, no running water and spoiled food to “luxury bubbles” where tourists enjoy air-conditioned rooms and refrigerated buffets.

Los military checkpoints They strictly regulate access to these places.

The rest of Cuba, far from the center of power and the beach resorts, is the area most affected by the crisis.

After weeks of blackouts, hundreds of people in Morón, a city of 70,000 people in central Cuba, took to the streets.

On March 13, they looted the local headquarters of the Communist Party, dragging furniture, computers and documents to the street to set them on fire.

In eastern Cuba, the provincial electric company in the city of Holguín only supplies electricity to residential neighborhoods for about three hours a day.

The main economic drivers, such as nickel processing plants, have had to reduce their operations, which has reduced the country’s exports.

Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in the country, suffers serious interruptions in the electricity and drinking water supply.

Its residents have begun holding nightly protests known as cacerolazos, in which they bang pots and pans to express their anger.

For Cuba, the crisis has highlighted the risks of relying so heavily on foreign oil while trying to maintain a centrally planned socialist economic system.

While countries around the world use various methods to produce electricity, such as natural gas, wind power or battery storage, Cuba remains stuck in a 20th century model that relies heavily on oil.

This makes it vulnerable to oil crises.

The last confirmed arrival of a major oil tanker was the Ocean Mariner, which docked in Havana on January 9 with some 86,000 barrels of fuel from Mexico.

Since then, Cuba has had to depend on its own limited production of extra heavy crude oilwhich barely covers 40% of its energy demand.

That deficit could push Cuba’s entire economic system to the limit, not just its electrical grid.

The analysis of night lighting compares the light intensity in Cuba from March 6 to 12, 2026 with that of the same period in 2025, using satellite images. The light intensity shown is the average of the seven-day period, based on available data. There may be small gaps in the data where the satellite did not pick up coverage. These gaps usually occur in areas that had poor lighting in previous years.