2024 Cuba blackout

The 2024 Cuba blackout was a total nationwide power outage across Cuba that began on 18 October 2024, lasting for four days, due to the failure of the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant. Prior to the shutdown, the Cuban government announced energy-saving measures. The blackout is the most severe energy crisis that the country has experienced since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Background

Blackouts earlier in the year caused widespread protests that were suppressed by force. A day before the outage, a blackout left half the country already without electricity.

Blackout

The outage began at around 11:00 local time on 18 October, after the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant in Matanzas, the country's largest, went offline, resulting in the loss of 1.64 gigawatts at peak hours, equivalent to half the total consumer demand. Power was partially restored for a short time before shutting down entirely again on 20 October. By 21 October, state media claimed power had been restored to 50% of customers in Havana, while electricity had been restored to 70.89% of the nationwide population by 22 October.

Impact

All non-essential public services were suspended starting on 17 October and were to remain closed along with schools until 23 October. Dissemination of information related to Hurricane Oscar, which made landfall near Baracoa on 20 October, was interrupted.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the outage on difficulties in importing fuel and other resources due to "financial and energy persecution" by the United States. However, local authorities blamed the outage on increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners, as well as poor maintenance of the power plants.

Díaz-Canel also stated that any protests to the government's response would not be tolerated and that all protesters would be "processed rigorously under our revolutionary law". Shortly after protests started Díaz-Canel and prime minister Manuel Marrero Cruz appeared on a televised address in military fatigues claiming "counter-revolutionaries from abroad" were fomenting protests in Cuba. Díaz-Canel also stated that "we have organized from the defense councils" and "we are not going to accept and we will not allow anyone to act by provoking vandalistic acts, much less disturbing the peace of our people, and that is a conviction and that is a principle of our revolution"

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy claimed the outages would end by 21 or 22 October; however, Hurricane Oscar made landfall in Cuba on 20 October, severely disrupting efforts to restore the grid.

Government celebrations for Cuban Culture Day scheduled for 21–23 October were cancelled, in an effort to reduce strain on the electrical network. President Díaz-Canel also cancelled his physical attendance at the 16th BRICS summit in Russia to attend to the blackout.

Protests

Protests erupted hours after the blackout began. Protesters in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana constructed make-shift barricades in the streets. Without electricity Havana's water-pumps cannot operate, nor can food be refrigerated, leaving many residents in a state of "desperation". In an effort to quell protests in Havana the government cut internet access and deployed police formations to clear protesters by force.

In Santiago de Cuba, the focal point of protests earlier in the year during blackouts, large police formations where deployed to deter protesters, however, some residents still took to the streets protesting the lack of electricity.

Protests also took place in Manicaragua, where protesters surrounded the local government headquarters chanting "Down with!" and "Abusers!"

See also

• 2024 Lebanese blackout
• 2024 Venezuelan blackouts