Cuba's national power grid suffered a total collapse on Friday afternoon, plunging the entire island into darkness for the fourth time this year, the state electricity company announced.
The blackout began at 4:30 p.m. local time, marking the second total grid failure in five days after an identical collapse on Monday. Authorities attributed the outage to voltage instability and low generation capacity. It is the eighth nationwide blackout since October 2025.
The chronic power failures have been exacerbated by a severe fuel shortage. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, which cut off Venezuelan fuel shipments and pressured Mexico to halt deliveries as well, deepening the island's energy crisis.