The Ministry of Energy and Mines of Cuba has reported this Sunday that the island, which in the east receives Category 1 Hurricane ‘Oscar’, will spend another night without electricity supply due to a new blackout of the energy system, the third in seven days. “A few minutes ago, another disconnection of the (National) Electrical System (SEN) occurred. Restoration work immediately began,” the ministerial portfolio indicated in a brief statement published through its profile on the social network X.
Hours earlier, Cuban authorities reported that they had managed to restore electricity service to almost half of the population after the general blackout that has affected the island since Friday. The rest of the country was still without supply despite failed attempts to reconnect it throughout Saturday, although early in the day there was a new relapse.
Up to this point, milestones had been achieved such as the interconnection of circuits from Mariel (west) to Holguín (east) and the start-up and synchronization of several thermoelectric plants, including Antonio Guiteras, one of the largest in the country. From the first moment, Minem warned that the recovery tasks were going to be complex.
If that were not enough, the blackout in which Cuba has been experiencing for three days could worsen in the coming hours with the arrival of Hurricane ‘Óscar’ minutes before 6:30 p.m. local time (00:30 in Spain). According to the Forecast Center of the Cuban Meteorological Institute, the hurricane has made landfall in Baracoa, with winds of more than 110 kilometers/hour.
According to the agency, Hurricane Oscar is moving with maximum sustained winds of about 130 kilometers per hour. “The population is directed to remain attentive to the information from the Institute of Meteorology and Civil Defense, through the media and official profiles of social networks, to disciplinedly comply with the instructions given by local authorities and the rules of conduct. planned to avoid loss of human life,” the agency has published.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, warned of the situation on his social media accounts. “I have just communicated with the first secretaries of the PCC from Camagüey to Guantánamo. They are already working hard to protect the people and economic resources, given the imminence of Hurricane Oscar. The energy situation is also being attended to,” he published a few hours ago. Later, he published another message to point out that “precise instructions to ensure the care of our people” had already been provided. “Support for the provinces is strengthened and brigades are being prepared for recovery in the shortest time possible,” he explained.
When will the light return to Cuba?
A group of people on the Malecón in Havana after the first blackout in Cuba was announced.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, assured this Sunday in an appearance before this third total blackout that the Government hopes that the SEN will once again reach the state in which it was on Friday before the first. massive incidence, although he assured that the majority of consumers will have electricity again “tomorrow, Monday” and that “the last customer may be receiving power next Tuesday,” said De la O, who recognizes that the situation of the electrical system is “very tense” and that the lack of electricity has left “the majority of Cubans” without water because the motors that pump the liquid into homes use electricity.
The SEN is in a very precarious state due to the shortage of fuel, the result of the lack of foreign currency to import it and the frequent breakdowns of the obsolete thermoelectric plants, with four decades of operation and chronic lack of investment. Blackouts have been common for years but the situation has worsened in recent weeks. In recent days there have been days with moments in which half of the country was simultaneously without power.
Frequent blackouts damage the Cuban economy – which in 2023 contracted 1.9% and is still below 2019 levels, according to official data – and drive social discontent in a society affected by an economic crisis worsened in the last years.
Caceroladas in Havana against the Government
Cuba paralyzes non-essential state labor activity due to the energy crisis
Meanwhile, media sympathetic to the opposition have reported protests over the lack of electricity supply. Thus, the portal 14 y Medio has reported on cazeroladas in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood of Havana, where police patrols quickly went and “imposed silence.”
“The Police, however, could not silence all the protests and banging pots and pans that were reported last night in different places in the capital and in other provinces,” highlighted the portal, linked to the opposition and activist Yoani Sánchez.
According to this source, there have been protests in Havana neighborhoods such as San Miguel del Padrón, Lawton and areas of Central Havana near the Malecón. “In the vicinity of Obrapía Street in Old Havana, pots and pans and shouts sounded loudly demanding the restoration of electrical service, as well as in Campo Florido, a rural community on the outskirts of the capital,” he said.
Videos circulate on social networks of people gathered in the streets banging pots and shouting, as in Santiago de Cuba or Villa Clara. In La Pera park in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, neighbors set fire to a garbage container that the Police soon put out, according to 14 y Medio.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
