“You have to wake up at 6,” the Dane said. “It’s a struggle.”
Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said at around 8:15 p.m. local time an outage at the Diezmero substation on the outskirts of Havana had caused “a significant loss of generation in western Cuba and, with it, the failure of the National Electric System.”The ministry said on its account on the social platform X that it is “working on the recovery process.”
The streets of Havana were dark and empty, with light coming only from the windows of hotels that had generators. Internet service was affected.People in provinces as far away as Guantánamo, Artemisa, Santiago de Cuba, and Santa Clara reported experiencing blackouts with just flickers of light.Earlier, the Electric Union, the state agency that regulates the sector, said in its daily report that peak-hour demand would be around 3,250 megawatts and the deficit would reach around 1,380 megawatts, meaning 42% of the national energy system would be shut down. This figure is not the highest in recent memory.
at the end of last year, leaving the island in the dark amid a serious economic crisis.Cuba’s power grid has been plagued by frequent outages, with more than half of the country experiencing power cuts during peak hours. The outages are primarily caused by
. In many parts of the island, electricity is crucial for cooking and water pumping.
Authorities on the island have begun a program to install photovoltaic parks and promised that dozens of them will be ready this year. Blackouts previously prompted anti-government demonstrations in 2021, 2022, and 2024.of some of President Nayib Bukele’s policies to be jailed Wednesday for six months on illegal enrichment charges.
Earlier, Ruth Leonora López had demanded a public trial as police brought her before the judge. Wednesday’s hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal.Observers say the case against López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities
The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations.Leaving the court after her hearing, López shouted “I am a political prisoner, the accusations are for my legal work, for my reporting this administration’s corruption. There are not institutions that guarantee Salvadorans rights. I am innocent.”