“From 6:00 pm onwards, the most central area of Regla seems like a pitch black hole.”
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, 22 November 2025 — “Chico, here in the neighbourhood we’re used to darkness at this time of day,” says Rodolfo, a 64-year-old man sitting at the door of his house on Martí Street, the main avenue in Regla. “By 6:00 pm, the most central area looks like a pitch black hole. Maybe there’s a light here and there, from a café with a generator, but the rest of us have to go out onto the pavement with chairs or sit on the walls and wait for the power to come back on.”
Yaima has already become accustomed to power cuts disrupting the schedule. “You more or less go by what the company says,” she says, although lately they have been lasting up to 20 or 30 minutes longer than announced. “I’m used to it now, but this week, as has happened on other occasions, the schedules have been completely off.”
Havana residents are the least affected by the Electric Union, while the rest of Cubans protest, but the energy crisis is already hitting so hard that no one is spared. “With the utmost calm, they send the message that certain blocks have had to be affected due to a generation deficit, and they ruin your plans,” he protests. On Wednesday, my children went to bed with a piece of bread because at 10 p.m., when the power came back on, they weren’t going to eat.”
On that day, several units at the Felton, Santa Cruz del Norte, Renté and Cienfuegos thermoelectric power stations were out of service or undergoing maintenance, and 91 distributed generation plants were out of service due to a lack of fuel. The drop in supply from the main partners, Mexico and Venezuela, is – so far this year – 35% compared to 2024, a year in which there had also been a sharp cut in oil imports. The scale of this crisis has reached an unsustainable point and has simultaneously affected the six “blackout blocks” several times. Power cuts during the early hours of the morning are more than 3 or 4 hours.
The endless explanations from the authorities about the state of the national energy system and how it will be fixed – announcements that have been made for at least five years, during which time it has only gotten worse – fill minutes on TV’s Round Tables and prime-time news programmes that will not reach those who might be interested. “Here, for more than a week, it has not been possible to watch television from approximately four to eight or nine o’clock. This is bloody awful. Oh, and that’s not to mention the water, which arrives here every other day at that time. When the power comes on, all that’s left is a trickle of water,” Rodolfo continues in a very alarming complaint given the current health context on the island.
To make matters worse, the telephone and internet signals are lost when the power is cut. “On other occasions, the power went out here and there was no connection, but you could go out onto the roof and more or less access WhatsApp or Facebook during the four hours of the power cut,” says Yaima, whose work as a sales manager for a micro-SME [small business] is also affected. “Now it goes out, and the next second you lose the signal completely. You can’t call your mother, you can’t entertain yourself or, worse, as in my case, you can’t work. I get paid on commission, per customer I serve. Imagine, with these power cuts I can only work three or four hours a day,” she complains.
To top it off, the telephone signal and internet are lost with the blackouts. “There were times when the power went out and there was no connection, but you could go to the roof and more or less get on WhatsApp or Facebook during the four hours of blackout,” says Yaima, whose work as sales manager for a small group of people is also affected. “Now the power goes out, and the next second you lose the signal completely. You can’t call your mother, you can’t entertain yourself, or worse, as is my case, you can’t work. I charge a commission for each customer, and imagine, with these blackouts I can only work three or four hours a day,” she laments.
The winter chill is also absent from the island this year, and after a few days of milder temperatures at the beginning of the month, the heat is keeping demand for fans and air conditioning high. This Friday, authorities estimate that 3,200 megawatts will be needed during peak hours, but the system can only generate 1,494, much less than half. Meanwhile, the authorities will continue to be embroiled in their war against El Toque and in the new “programme to correct distortions and boost the economy”, which will be discussed today at a round table that neither Rodolfo nor hundreds of thousands of Cubans will be able to see.
Translated by GH
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