Half of Cuba is Without Power Due to a Breakdown That Affects the Island from Ciego de Avila to Guantanamo

The electrical disconnection stretches from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo. (Twitter/@EmpresaElctric2)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2022 — Half the Island is without power this Monday, as reported by the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) itself on its networks and confirmed to 14ymedio by sources in several affected provinces.

In a brief note on its Facebook account, which did not allow comments, the UNE says that “there was a failure in the 220 KW network” between Sancti Spíritus and Nuevitas that caused a “total disconnection” of the electrical system “in the Central-Eastern area, affecting the provinces from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo.”

Subsequently, the Ministry of Energy and Mines explained in a tweet that “the cause of the disconnection was a fire in a nearby cane field,” without specifying where it was, and said that “work is being done on the restoration of the system,” which “will take between four and five hours.”

The city of Camagüey ran out of electricity shortly after 1:00 p.m., an interruption that paralyzed life in a town that had some hope that there would be relief from the blackouts it had experienced in recent weeks.

This is the biggest breakdown in the national network since last September 27, when the National Electricity System collapsed completely and the Island was left in the dark for several hours.

After the continuous and prolonged blackouts of the second half of 2022, which provoked massive protests on the Island, the Government sold as a triumph that at the beginning of the year there were hardly any affectations to the network. But the optimism did not last long: since then, the authorities announced that between January and April there would be cuts, so that the electricity system “is prepared for the large demand during the summer.

Although the regime had promised “short” blackouts, some provinces experienced cuts of up to six hours in a row at the end of last January.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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