Cubans condemn ‘suffocating’ US pressure as blackouts hit 20 hours a day
Residents of Havana and government officials are pushing back against intensifying pressure from Washington, describing a daily struggle for survival marked by crippling power outages and economic isolation. As diplomatic tensions between the United States and Cuba escalate, ordinary citizens report that the island’s energy grid has all but collapsed, plunging neighborhoods into darkness for the vast majority of the day.
Life in the dark
For millions on the island, the deterioration of the electrical grid has become the defining feature of daily life. Andy Martinez Gonzalez, a resident of Havana, described the harrowing reality facing households across the capital. “Blackouts now last between 12 and 20 hours a day,” Gonzalez said, highlighting the severe disruption to basic routines, from food preservation to cooling during the Caribbean heat.
The energy crisis has been exacerbated by a critical lack of fuel and aging infrastructure, which Cuban officials attribute to the tightening of US sanctions. The measures, often described by Havana as a blockade, have restricted the island’s ability to import oil and purchase replacement parts for its thermal power plants.
Sovereignty under siege
Amidst the humanitarian strain, voices within Cuba are challenging the political legitimacy of US interference. Liz Oliva Fernandez, a Cuban journalist with the Havana-based media outlet Belly of the Beast, criticized the US foreign policy stance that explicitly seeks political change on the island. “Washington has no right to decide which state or government should collapse,” Fernandez stated, reflecting a widespread sentiment that the island’s future should be determined internally, not by foreign powers.
This pushback comes as Washington doubles down on its strategy of “maximum pressure,” which includes keeping Cuba on the state sponsors of terrorism list—a designation that severely limits the country’s access to international finance and banking.
Internal mismanagement cited by critics
While the government blames external aggression, observers and internal critics point to domestic failures as a significant driver of the collapse. Economic analysts argue that the Cuban government’s own policies—including a delayed currency unification process and a failure to diversify the energy matrix away from imported fossil fuels—have left the island vulnerable.
Critics note that despite decades of Soviet and Venezuelan subsidies, the state failed to invest adequately in maintaining the national electric grid. The centralized control of the economy, they argue, has stifled the private sector innovation that could offer relief. Opposition groups and some economists insist that while sanctions hurt, the root cause of the crisis is a rigid political and economic model that refuses to adapt to 21st-century realities.
A deepening crisis
The current situation represents one of the lowest points in the Cuban economy since the “Special Period” of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Inflation is soaring, and shortages of food and medicine are rampant. The recent geopolitical shifts, including instability in Venezuela—a key energy ally—have further choked off the fuel supplies that kept the lights on.
As the US administration signals no intent to ease sanctions without significant political concessions, and the Cuban government digs in its heels on sovereignty, it is the Cuban people like Gonzalez who remain caught in the blackout, waiting for a light at the end of the tunnel.
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aljazeera.com
studentsforliberty.org
