Cuba Hit by Another Blackout as US Urges More Sanctions
(Bloomberg) -- Cuba suffered a nationwide blackout on Friday, the second in less than a week, as the communist-run country grapples with an aging power grid, chronic fuel shortages and the threat of further US sanctions that have already hampered access to fuel and financing.
Authorities have activated protocols to recover service, the Energy Ministry said in a post on X.
Also on Friday, a group of US representatives from Florida and New Jersey urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to sanction Cuba’s state-run entity that operates its overseas medical missions. The lawmakers — Representatives María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Christopher Smith — argue in a letter that Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos exploits Cuban healthcare professionals and generates revenue that helps sustain the island’s one-party rule.
Cuba, a Caribbean island of 10 million people 90 miles south of Florida, had restored power across about three quarters of the country as of July 7 after the grid suffered a total collapse the day before. The Cuban government blames US President Donald Trump’s administration for imposing a near-total energy blockade and ever-tighter sanctions for the frequent outages and general malaise while the US counters that its outdated political and economic model is responsible for the collapse.
Economists and energy analysts also point to years of underinvestment and structural weaknesses that have left the grid increasingly vulnerable.
Rolling outages, fuel shortages and repeated grid failures have become commonplace, raising doubts about whether electricity service can return to normal without significant investment and a more stable fuel supply.
Rubio added pressure on Saturday to Havana, saying that its leaders must embrace political and economic reforms “before it’s too late,” arguing the island’s deepening crisis has left the communist regime with a narrowing window to change course.
“The US will continue to use every tool at our disposal to both address the national security threats posed by the Cuban communist regime and to drive the economic and political reforms to give Cuba a better future,” he said in a statement marking the 5th anniversary of the July 11 protests, the largest since the revolution.
Rubio demanded the liberation of all political prisoners arrested during those protests and before.
(Updates with Rubio’s statement starting in the seventh paragraph)
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