Cuba’s national electric grid collapses, leaving millions without power

2026.03.16 21:50 People wait at a bus stop in Havana, Cuba during a blackout on Monday. Photo: AFP Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the country’s grid operator said, leaving around 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the island’s already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE said on social media it is investigating the causes of the island blackout, the latest in a series of ‌widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run country. A major power plant failure was ruled out by officials but they had still not pinpointed the cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said they had begun restoring power to small clusters of circuits, or microsystems, across the country, an early but necessary first step in bringing the full grid back online. Speaking to reporters at the White House in Washington on Monday, ⁠US ⁠President Donald ‌Trump said he thinks ⁠he ⁠will have ‌the “honour” ‌of ‌taking ‌Cuba. “I do believe I’ll be … having the honour of taking Cuba. Whether I free it, take it - think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now,” he said. Trump has said in recent weeks that Cuba is on the verge of collapse ⁠and is eager to make a ⁠deal with the United States. The United States has ratcheted up pressure this year on long-time foe Cuba ⁠since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro – Cuba’s most important foreign benefactor – in January. Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba ‌and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to the country, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid. Cuba said on Friday that it has entered into talks with the United States with the hope ‌of defusing the crisis. Cubans have grown accustomed to power outages, whether tied to the oil supply shortfalls or syste

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