Cuba has been struck by another nationwide power failure, plunging millions into darkness as the island struggles with acute fuel shortages and tighter US restrictions on oil supplies. The latest collapse is at least the sixth major blackout since the beginning of the year.
Cuba’s energy difficulties have intensified since Venezuela, once its principal oil supplier, halted shipments following the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January. President Donald Trump subsequently declared a national emergency concerning Cuba, sought to prevent oil deliveries to the island, and threatened tariffs against countries continuing to supply Havana. Trump has also repeatedly spoken of bringing Cuba under US control “one way or another” and said political change on the island is only a “question of time.”
According to Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, Friday’s nationwide grid failure began with a transmission-line fault in the west of the country and was aggravated by unstable weather conditions. Emergency restoration procedures were launched, with generating units progressively returned to service. Electricity had been restored to some areas by Saturday.
The country’s fragile power network remains heavily dependent on ageing oil-fired generating stations, many of which have been operating for decades. Chronic fuel shortages, combined with difficulties securing replacement parts and carrying out maintenance, have forced generating units offline and left the national grid with little reserve capacity when further failures occur.
Washington has meanwhile increased its economic pressure on Havana. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced fresh sanctions against Cuba’s nickel industry on Thursday, following restrictions imposed on state-owned oil company CUPET in June.
Russia, China, Mexico and other countries have provided humanitarian assistance as Cuba’s shortages worsen. Russia supplied approximately 700,000 barrels of oil in late March, representing one of the few substantial fuel deliveries to reach the country since US restrictions were strengthened.
The crisis is affecting far more than household electricity, with transportation, water services and healthcare also disrupted. In June, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that Cuban children were dying because doctors could not obtain essential medicines and medical supplies.
Turk also criticised sweeping economic sanctions that affect entire sectors and impose severe consequences on civilian populations, saying such measures are “incompatible with basic principles of international human rights law.”
Image credit: David Tomaseti
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that Cuban children were dying because doctors could not obtain essential medicines and medical supplies.”
This is what the scumbag US establishment have and probably always will stand for, misery and death to people who wont willingly be exploited by these criminals. Killing little girls in Iran and children elsewhere in the world means nothing to them.
We need to stop voting for those who support them here in NZ, if we are to be seen to be a moral people.
Crocodile tears from the UN as usual with no definitive action
The most useless institution on the planet
Like the people who predominantly inhabit its hallways
Next to Bill Gates funded and controlled WHO
A US bought and paid for pocket edition control mechanism
Next time you want to publish a Penny Marie interview remember she supports murderous pedophile Trump.
You mean the 45-47 (already 48) Supreme Commander in Chief of the special military worldwide operation to drain the Imperialist swamp and gitmo the Imperialist creatures.
By being an even better imperialist? Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Greenland….who’s next?
The current wars over hydrocarbons and access to energy are completely and utterly fake. Petroleum is not a limited resource, has nothing to do with fossils, and the knowledge of abiogenic oil has been carefully hidden from the general public in order to control access to energy and create false scarcity to inflate prices.