14ymedio, Madrid, 2 December 2022 — The call this Thursday of the Escambray newspaper to its readers to leave a “question, reflection or opinion” for the Sancti Spíritus Electric Company immediately had angry responses.
The official media announced that the state company will appear on December 7 in its newsroom “to clarify, as far as possible, the doubts, concerns and disagreements” of the citizens, given “the delicate energy situation that Cuba has been experiencing for months.”
“I have several questions, the first is why Sancti Spíritus, being the least densely populated province in the central region, suffers the worst blackouts,” says Ricardo, who says that he is aware of “another reality” in other provinces and also questions whether there is “ruthlessness” with some of the “blocks” into which the distribution of scheduled blackouts is divided and which suffer more than others from power outages.
The reader Rey follows the same line, but is harsher: “The electric company has social networks, telephones, etc. They have communication channels to give answers to the population. Do you think it is necessary for the press to be a mediator? If you analyze only this, you will already realize that everything in the electric company is malfunctioning.”
The man from Espiritu makes a request to the provincial newspaper: “You, as the press, should be a little more on our side. For example, investigate why the current is not turned off in Havana, publish about it, and ask for answers. Should we from the field assume the entire deficit?” And he concludes: “This is not the time for photos and explanations, it is time to have light. Almost a whole year of blackouts that instead of being solved are getting worse. December has arrived. It will be another broken promise.”
“Blackouts and alumbrones* are the main topic of daily conversations, and no matter how much the corresponding entities explain in terms of limitation in thermal generation, capacity deficit, units under maintenance, breaks, lack of fuel… of the only thing Cubans understand is the 10 hours or more that goes by without power,” says Maydelis, who asserts: “The situation Cuba is experiencing with fuel is not a secret to anyone, but let’s stop fooling ourselves, we all know the almost obsolete state of the Cuban thermoelectric plants, built more than 30 years ago, which no longer can be maintained.”
For the reader Chino, Escambray’s call is useless: “What is the point of posting questions in this way if the Sancti Spíritus UNE [Cuba Electric Union] has a channel and a Telegram group with more than 51,000 members and they keep it private, that is, that we cannot comment or publish anything? In the end we all know that the country’s energy situation is not going to be resolved or improved considerably before December 31.”
*Translator’s note: Alumbrone is a word coined to mean the often unexpected times when the electricity is on.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
