Dusk has become a frenetic time in Havana as Cuba prepares for a possible third night without electricity after repeated failed attempts to restart the national grid.
Long queues formed early in the morning to buy roti in the capital. The night before, people emerged from their damp homes in search of food, drink and news. “What's the point of staying at home?” Alejandro Hernández asked outside a bar near Vedado.
By Sunday, most of the island had started to have power again, although no one knew if the night would cause another drop in supply. It was done every night of the weekend.
Jokes, a staple of Cubans' increasingly difficult lives, are becoming increasingly acidic. “Relight the Moro,” they say about the Havana lighthouse. “We're not quite out of it yet.” The island has lost 10% of its population in the last two years, more than 1 million people.
Walking the streets at night has become dangerous, not because of violence, but because of broken sidewalks and open drains.
The problem was that the Cuban government ran out of money. This has made power outages of up to 20 hours a day a common experience across the island as the state struggles to buy enough fuel on global markets for its five main thermoelectric plants.
Lack of money, water shortages due to faulty taps and pipes, garbage piling up on corners as collections dwindle, and hunger as food prices soar.
The United States blames its six-decade embargo against Cuba for its dire situation. On Friday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called it a “brutal siege.” Others, like the respected economist Pedro Monreal, respond by insisting that one of the world's last centrally planned communist states is no longer sclerotic. “This is a bankruptcy caused by internal decisions,” he wrote online.
But it was the government's call Thursday for all essential workers in its vast bureaucracy to return home and conserve energy that heralded the latest crisis, unprecedented except when the island is hit directly by hurricanes.
The measure did not save the power grid, which was cut after 11 a.m. Friday. The main manufacturing plant in Matanzas was out of service. Only those with personal generators had electricity.
Since then, several attempts by the Cuban Electrical Union have failed. In some neighborhoods, the light appears mainly around hospitals. But on Saturday morning, at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., the power supply was cut throughout the country. With a disconcerting sound.
Around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday the computer crashed again.
The western part of Cuba, including Havana, has been severely affected as engineers try to restore the system. This has come as a shock to residents, as the city has traditionally been spared the worst and the government fears protests. In July 2021, Cuba experienced its worst protests in memory when a demonstration against a power outage spread in a city west of Havana.
In a Caribbean country struggling to feed itself, power outages are especially severe. Without fans, nighttime temperatures would prevent people from sleeping and lack of electricity would leave food in refrigerators. People are calling family and friends to see if there is somewhere to store the small amounts of meat the government provides to the most vulnerable.
During this latest crisis, the government tried to inform the people. Senior government officials announced the initial collapse of the power system in X. It made global headlines and shook an already weakened tourism sector, one of the state's main sources of foreign funding.
A photograph was published on a government media channel showing Díaz Canal and his team standing behind two technicians in the office of the National Electricity Board. On the one hand, former vice president Ramiro Valdez, now 92 years old.
The country's five main plants are half a century old. According to George Pinon, an expert on Cuba's electrical system at the University of Texas, they have exceeded their expected useful life.
Cuba's Prime Minister Manuel Marrero has called for a shift toward renewable fuels and higher prices for electricity used by the country's growing private sector.
Despite government reports that its technicians are working “non-stop,” comments in articles by state media CubaDebate show public anger. “This should not happen,” wrote a resident of the Havana neighborhood called Plaza de la Revolución. “Millions of people without electricity or water. What is the value of all the explanations?
On Saturday night, after dark, the streets of the Havana neighborhood of Vedado were almost empty. The few who came out hurried back home, leaving only two members of the military patrol to stumble slowly.
