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Cuba's national grid collapsed for the third time in six months, plunging the island into darkness and deepening a humanitarian crisis that officials attribute to a US-imposed oil blockade. The latest failure occurred on Monday, according to the state electricity company UNE, which reported a "total disconnection from the national electricity generation system" and said it was investigating the causes.

The blackout is part of a pattern of increasingly frequent and prolonged outages. Cuba's energy infrastructure, composed mainly of aging Soviet-era plants, has been struggling for years, but the pace of failures has accelerated since the United States tightened restrictions on fuel deliveries in January.

Coverage comparison

Reports from multiple outlets converge on the immediate cause of the collapse: a shortage of fuel to run the generators that support the national grid. Dawn and The Guardian both describe the outage as Cuba's third nationwide power cut since the start of the year, while TASS notes that the system had failed three times in eight days and was restored on the morning of July 15. The Guardian also reports that the grid collapsed for the third time in 10 days as of Tuesday.

The outlets differ in their emphasis. TASS focuses on the technical restoration of the system and quotes the Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, who acknowledged a lack of fuel and external support while emphasizing the government's plan to achieve energy sovereignty. Dawn and The Guardian highlight the humanitarian toll, describing the island's population enduring sweltering heat, limited water access, and sporadic electricity.

The Guardian and Dawn both attribute the crisis to the US blockade, which they say has depleted fuel supplies and, combined with sanctions, has driven foreign companies out of Cuba. TASS similarly reports that Washington began blocking fuel supplies in late January and has since adopted several sanction packages. The Russian state agency also notes that power outages have grown longer and more frequent, with many areas receiving electricity for only one to two hours a day.

Key Claims

  • Cuba suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, as reported by Dawn and The Guardian. TASS specifies that the system failed three times in eight days.
  • The outage was due to a lack of fuel to run the generators, according to authorities cited in multiple reports.
  • The US imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, which has depleted fuel supplies. Dawn and TASS both report this, while The Guardian describes it as a six-month-long blockade.
  • Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy cited a lack of fuel and external support and emphasized the need for energy sovereignty, as quoted in TASS.
  • The Guardian reports that the Cuban government says it has few options to address the crisis, quoting the energy minister on the absence of fuel and lack of access to spare parts.
  • The Guardian also reports that the US has used sanctions to destroy Cuba's industries and that foreign companies have been driven out due to sanctions.
  • The Guardian states that crime is increasing in Cuba due to the crisis.
  • The Cuban government has invested in solar energy to alleviate the shortages, as reported by Dawn and The Guardian, though solar still represents only about 10% of the energy mix.
  • TASS reports that Cuba's national electricity system was restored on July 15 after a complete failure, though power outages, including in Havana, continued.

Perspectives

The Cuban government's position is represented in TASS's reporting, which quotes Minister Vicente de la O Levy on the lack of fuel and external support, while asserting that the country is on a path to energy sovereignty based on domestic resources. The minister acknowledged the difficulty of the transition but expressed confidence in growing renewable energy generation.

The US government's perspective is not directly represented in the provided material. However, The Guardian reports that President Donald Trump has promised that Cuba will fall, framing the blockade as part of a pressure campaign to bring down its communist government. This is reported as context rather than an official statement from Washington.

Experts cited in The Guardian, such as Jorge Piñon, a senior energy researcher at the University of Texas, attribute the system's fragility to its aging infrastructure. "The backbone of the system is still the big power plants," Piñon said. "And they're old, broken and tired."