Cuba’s blackout in charts: More hours without power than with it as Trump’s pressure intensifies

Humor is often the Cuban people’s best tool for capturing their reality. That’s why, on an island that now spends more hours in darkness than with electricity, people no longer talk about apagones (blackouts) but about alumbrones — fleeting moments when the lights actually come on.

“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the U.S. As you know, better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.

Cuba’s energy crisis is chronic, but the U.S. pressure campaign announced at the end of January has pushed an already fragile system to the brink. An analysis of the Cuban government’s 2026 figures carried out by EL PAÍS shows that Cuba’s power supply is in an unprecedented state. There have been several days when blackouts lasted 24 hours.

In the past 18 months, the National Electric System (SEN) has suffered seven failures. But in March alone, there were two, plus a partial disconnection that left two-thirds of the country without power. Barely two months had passed since the Ocean Mariner, a ship sent by Mexico, ran aground in Havana. It was the last to arrive before the U.S. threat of sanctions. The impact of that shipment was never felt. The reasons were obvious: the 86,000 barrels barely covered Cuba’s oil deficit for a single day.

Blackouts lasting several hours increased from mid-2024. Even before Nicolás Maduro was detained in January, Venezuela had significantly reduced oil shipments to the island. At the height of Venezuela’s Chavismo movement, the South American country sent more than 100,000 barrels a day. By 2025, that figure had fallen to around 30,000, according to independent estimates. Historically, Cuba has always depended on a patron to keep its economy afloat. During the Cold War, its support came from the Soviet Union. Later, it was Venezuela and, more recently, Mexico.

Fuel imports

The backbone of the energy system is the 16 thermal-generation units, made up of plants that have been running for more than four decades, and the diesel and fuel-oil engines scattered across the country. They make up 80% of the mix; the remaining 20% comes from gas and solar energy.

To sustain this system, Havana requires about 110,000 barrels a day. Of that figure, it can only produce roughly 40,000. What’s more, on any given day, a large number of the 16 units are offline due to failures or repairs. On May 12, 75% of them were out of service.

In the afternoons of March, nearly 60% of Cuba was without power during peak‑demand hours, according to official data from the state utility UNE. March 6 was the worst day so far, with 68% of the island affected. The previous record had been set in January, at 62%.

By mid‑month, Cubans began protesting in several cities. The loudest mobilization took place in Morón, in central Cuba. A group of demonstrators threw stones at the local Communist Party headquarters, entered the building, and set a bonfire at the entrance. The government has acknowledged that five people were detained. The NGO Justicia 11J has documented 16 arrests, three of them minors under 18.

In the closing stretch of March, the last lifeline arrived. The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered more than 700,000 barrels to the island, with the White House’s approval. The impact was felt in April: blackouts were the shortest of the year, and the power deficit fell by nearly 50%. Havana even managed to go almost a full week without outages.

But the island burned through every last drop. A month later, Cubans were back to reality. The gap between the megawatts generated and those consumed widened in the first days of May. On May 14, the country set a historic record for simultaneous outages: 70%. Hours later, the system suffered another partial shutdown.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy acknowledged on state television that the island had exhausted its reserves of fuel oil and diesel. Havana, home to two million people, again endured entire days without electricity — as happened from May 6 to 18, according to official data analyzed by EL PAÍS. During those days, desperation became visible in the streets. The banging of pots and pans became the soundtrack of the nights.

Several independent analysts — all based outside the island — warn that the situation is so dire that even if the United States lifted the energy blockade tomorrow, blackouts would continue. Reviving the industry would require roughly $10 billion, a train that left the station years ago. Over the past decade, massive spending on tourism and hotels — a sector under the absolute control of the Armed Forces — has overshadowed the rest of the economy. In 2024, the last year with available data, the state devoted 37.4% of all investment to building resorts, eleven times the amount allocated to education and healthcare combined.

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