Cuba Restores Power After 29-Hour Blackout Amid US Oil Blockade

HAVANA—Cuba reconnected its power grid on March 17 and brought online its largest oil-fired power plant, energy officials said, putting an end to a nationwide blackout that lasted more than 29 hours amid a U.S. move to choke off the island’s fuel supply.

After the country’s 10 million people had been plunged into darkness overnight, the Caribbean island’s national power grid came fully back online by 6:11 p.m. However, officials said power shortages may continue because not enough electricity is being generated.

In addition to cutting off oil sales to Cuba, U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric against the Communist-run island, saying on March 16 that he could do anything he wanted with the country.

A U.S. State Department official blamed the Cuban regime for the grid collapse, calling blackouts a “symptom of the failing regime’s incompetence.”

Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel fired back at Washington, criticizing its “almost daily public threats against Cuba.”

Cuba has yet to say what caused the nationwide grid failure on March 16, the first such collapse since the United States cut off Cuba’s oil supply from Venezuela and threatened to enact tariffs on countries that ship fuel to the island nation.

By midday on March 17, grid workers successfully fired up the Antonio Guiteras power plant, a decades-old behemoth that underpins the country’s power grid.

Electricity generation, hampered by dire fuel shortages and antiquated power plants, is still far below what is necessary to cover demand, providing scarce relief for Cubans already exhausted from months of blackouts.

Most Cubans, including those in the capital, Havana, were seeing 16 or more hours of blackout daily even before the latest grid collapse.

“It affects every aspect of our lives,” Havana resident Carlos Montes de Oca said, noting that the outages had thrown simple necessities such as food and water supply into disarray. “All we can do is sit, wait, read a book. … Otherwise the stress gets to you.”

Much of Cuba was overcast through the afternoon on March 16 as a cold front neared the island, casting shadows on the solar parks that account for a third or more of daytime generation.

Cuba has received only two small vessels carrying oil imports this year, according to LSEG ship tracking data seen by Reuters on March 16. On March 17, a Hong Kong-flagged tanker that could be carrying fuel to Cuba resumed navigation after suspending its course weeks ago in the Atlantic Ocean, according to LSEG ship tracking data.

Time to Talk

Cuba and the United States have opened talks aimed at defusing the crisis, among the most acute since 1959, when Cuban leader Fidel Castro forced a U.S. ally from power on the island.

Neither side has provided details of the ongoing negotiations, although Trump has portrayed Cuba as desperate to make a deal.

Washington would be doing “something with Cuba” very soon, he said in comments to reporters in the Oval Office on March 17.

The recent grid collapse overshadowed Cuba’s invitation to Cuban Americans and other exiles living abroad to invest in and own businesses on ‌the island, in an apparent gesture of goodwill amid the talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on March 17 that such measures weren’t enough.

“Cuba has an economy that doesn’t work and a political and governmental system they can’t fix. So they have to change dramatically,” he said.

Havana has said that it is willing to negotiate on even terms with Washington but that the talks would not involve the “internal affairs” of either country.

“We still don’t have power at my house,” said Havana resident Juana Perez. “But we’ll take it in stride, as we Cubans always do.”