An audio recording reveals how a powerful neighbor manages to restore electricity to his circuit by taking it away from residents of San Lázaro Street, in Centro Habana.
14ymedio, Havana, August 18, 2026 – This Tuesday, only the hospital and the water pumping system on Isla de La Juventud will have guaranteed power to operate. The rest of the territory was left practically without electricity from 6 in the morning due to the fuel deficit affecting generating plants.
The territory’s Electric Company reported in a Facebook message, with a photograph of a brief physical document, that photovoltaic circuits A230 and A030 will be energized between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. With this schedule, “one generating unit will remain operating at 75% of its capacity.”
To close its message, the company asked for “understanding, support and discipline to face this complex scenario.”
The responses were not long in coming. Dozens of island residents reproached the lack of electricity, an issue that has worsened during the year: “No, don’t screw around anymore. Enough, please. Food spoils in two hours. Imagine this situation now. How long will we continue living like this, in such an inhumane way?”
“They make the announcement and everyone has to fend for themselves. They don’t say whether the oil is already on its way, they don’t say anything. They drop the bombshell and that’s it”
Someone else added: “And they don’t say when it might be restored. They make the announcement and everyone has to fend for themselves. They don’t say whether the oil is already on its way, they don’t say anything. They drop the bombshell and that’s it.”
The episode expands an electricity crisis in the special municipality that in February forced blackouts to be extended in four-hour cycles because of the shortage of fuel forgeneration. It was also noted that “the measures being reported today are not permanent; their implementation will depend on how the availability of fuel evolves.”
As the months passed, the situation in the territory took on more dramatic overtones. At the end of May, the general director of the Electric Union, Rubén Campos Olmo, acknowledged that Isla de la Juventud was operating with barely six hours of electricity a day, despite having been considered for years one of the territories with the greatest energy stability in the country.
By June, everything had gotten worse, as in the rest of the country. A report in the official newspaper Victoria indicated that the territory would barely have 120 minutes of electricity supply guaranteed per day.
At the national level, the outlook is no better. According to the daily report from the Electric Union, this Tuesday, during the period of peak demand, when solar energy is no longer contributing anything to the national electric system (SEN), the state company estimates a projected shortfall of 2,369 MW against a maximum demand of 3,350 MW.
Many residents have denounced “interference in the blackout system and preferences for circuits,” as reflected in a complaint collected by 14ymedio in Havana
The bleak outlook is due, in part, to units 6 and 8 of the Máximo Gómez Thermoelectric Plant, in Mariel, as well as unit 6 of Diez de Octubre and unit 2 in Felton, “being out of order,” while unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara de la Serna plant, in Santa Cruz, units 5 and 6 of Renté, and unit 5 in Diez de Octubre “are undergoing maintenance.” Added to this is Unit 3 of the Antonio Maceo plant, which is out of service “due to moisture in the generator’s control cabinet.”
In total, eight of the country’s 16 thermoelectric generation units are not operational. This source is responsible for 40% of the energy mix and is supplied with domestic crude oil. Another 40% of the mix is handled by generating engines, but this energy source, which requires diesel and fuel oil, is shut down because of the fuel shortage resulting from the oil blockade and sanctions imposed by Washington on the Island.
The precarious energy situation in the country has caused, particularly since March, a wave of protests in various parts of the country.
The complaints have not been limited solely to the electricity supply: many residents have denounced “interference in the blackout system and preferences for circuits,” as reflected in a complaint collected by 14ymedio in Havana.
The source, who asks to remain anonymous, maintains that “San Lázaro Street, full of el químico — drugs — and danger at all hours, was almost entirely disconnected in order to connect another circuit, P326, which is even larger and generates greater electricity demand, to provide electricity to the television networks.”
The neighbor shares an audio recording of just over seven minutes in which the voice of a man can be heard boasting that he can restore the P326 circuit and announcing the arrival of a truck carrying utility poles “between tomorrow and the day after.” The man adds that, “once the truck with the poles arrives, the number one priority of the Ministry of Energy and Mines is the restoration of protected circuit 326, which is the circuit belonging to us that is being affected at this moment.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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