A partial collapse of Cuba's national power grid left approximately 4.5 million people without electricity late Saturday, plunging five of the island's 15 provinces into darkness from Pinar del Río through Cienfuegos and Matanzas.
The disconnection occurred shortly after 6 p.m. local time, state utility Unión Eléctrica reported on social media. Ten of 16 generation units were offline at the time, with the utility forecasting a 2,120-megawatt deficit between available supply and peak demand. Generators dependent on imported diesel and fuel oil have been idled by an oil blockade imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in January.
The outage is the fifth nationwide blackout since early 2026, with three occurring within a single 10-day span in July. Havana residents have endured outages lasting more than 30 hours in recent weeks. The energy crisis has deepened since Washington approved only one Russian crude shipment to reach the island this year and after U.S. forces detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in early January, disrupting a key oil supplier.