Cuba suffered another major failure in its power grid early on Wednesday, with the capital Havana and much of the western provinces left without electricity, local media and witnesses reported. State reporter Lázaro Manuel Alonso confirmed that four western provinces - from Pinar del Rio to Mayabeque - were affected by the outage, Reuters quoted him as saying.
The cause of the failure is not yet known. Before sunrise, Havana was plunged into darkness, with electricity only available in hospitals and some luxury hotels, a Reuters witness reported.
Cuba relies mainly on outdated and inefficient oil-fired thermal power plants, which already have difficulty maintaining a stable power supply. Last year, the country was plunged into a severe energy crisis due to a sharp decline in fuel supplies from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. Since then, the island's electricity grid has suffered partial or complete outages several times.
In recent months, islanders have endured daily power outages lasting up to 20 hours in many areas. Even Havana, long spared from the most severe restrictions, now regularly goes without electricity for 10 or more hours a day.
The Cuban government blames the critical situation on fuel shortages, crumbling infrastructure and damage caused by Hurricane Melissa. US sanctions and a deep economic crisis are making it difficult to buy enough fuel, increasing dependence on external allies.
According to data from ship manifests and internal documents seen by "Reuters", crude oil and fuel supplies to Cuba in the first ten months of 2025 fell by more than a third compared to the same period in 2024, after Mexico and Venezuela significantly curtailed their exports.