The country rejected “the plans of far-right dissident groups” to “convulse” the Cuban government
EFE (via 14ymedio), La Paz, 20 October 2024 — The Bolivian government expressed its solidarity with Cuba on Saturday in the face of the blackouts recorded in recent hours on the island and denounced alleged plans by “far-right” dissidents who want to take advantage of the situation to “destabilize” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The Bolivian Foreign Ministry expressed its position in a press release issued in light of the “energy situation facing” Cuba.
“Bolivia rejects the plans of far-right dissident groups which, from abroad, seek to take advantage of this situation to destabilize the government of President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and convulse the country,” it said. The Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called on “the governments and peoples of the world” to insist on compliance with “the more than twenty resolutions” approved by the United Nations that “call for the cessation of the US economic and commercial blockade* of Cuba, which is the cause of the anguish and suffering of the Cuban people,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Venezuelan government, another ally of Havana, also called on the international community on Friday to mobilize in support of Cuba and held the United States and its policy of economic sanctions responsible for the massive blackouts. Venezuela “expresses its absolute solidarity and unconditional support for the sister republic of Cuba, while it faces the current energy contingency, the product of the cruel intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution by the U.S. government,” said Nicolás Maduro’s government in a statement.
In its opinion, the “illegal blockade against the Cuban people” seeks “the application of collective punishment”
In its opinion, the “illegal blockade against the Cuban people” seeks “the application of collective punishment, which represents a crime against humanity.” “Venezuela supports all the heroic efforts made by the Cuban people as well as its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to mitigate the impact of the criminal unilateral coercive measures,” the document reiterates.
The whole of Cuba was left completely without electricity this Saturday after the failure of the process to restore the National Electric System (SEN) that began the day before following the total blackout caused by a breakdown in a thermoelectric plant.
The SEN collapsed on Friday morning due to a breakdown at the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, one of the country’s main generators, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem), and an event of “zero national energy coverage” occurred, a complete blackout throughout the country.
The SEN is in a very precarious state due to the fuel shortage – the result of the lack of foreign currency to import it – and the frequent breakdowns in obsolete thermoelectric plants, with four decades of operation and a chronic lack of investment.
Blackouts have been common for several years, but since the end of August the situation has worsened to levels similar to those of the worst times, such as the beginning of this year and July and August of 2021 and 2022.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which includes Bolivia and Venezuela, also blamed the United States for the blackouts in Cuba and considered them to be a “consequence of the economic war” and Washington’s “financial persecution” against the island.
*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
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