Island-wide blackout

HavanaCNN — 

Cuba’s electrical grid shut down on Friday, plunging the whole country into a blackout after one of the island’s major power plants failed, according to its energy ministry.

In a statement on X, the ministry said “the failure” of the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant caused “the total disconnection of the National Electrical System” from 11 a.m. ET on Friday.

In Havana, motorists on Friday tried to navigate the city where no street lights appeared to be working and only a handful of police were directing traffic. Generators are a luxury for most Cubans and only a few could be heard running in the city.

The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and health workers continued to provide vital services.

This week, Cuba’s increasingly energy-strapped government called for draconian measures to save power, including telling many workers to stay home.

Classes at schools were canceled from Friday through the weekend, nightclubs and recreation centers were ordered closed, and only “indispensable workers” should show up at their jobs, according to a list of energy-saving measures published by the state-run website Cubadebate earlier on Friday.

Millions of people on the communist-run island have been left without power over the last several days as the aging Cuban electrical grid repeatedly collapsed.

Cuban officials blamed a confluence of events from increased US economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.

In a televised address on Thursday, that was delayed because of technical difficulties Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid completely leaving people without power.

“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.

Marrero said fuel shortages had left much of Cuba in the dark but that shipments by boat in the coming days would improve the situation.

“We are not in an endless abyss,” he said.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Cuba issued a notice on X saying there was “no information on when power will be restored.” It called US citizens in Cuba, or those planning to travel to Cuba, to “take precautions,” including conserving water and food, and keeping mobile phones charged.

Read More at cnn.com

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