International News: Cuba suffers 3rd countrywide blackout in 2 weeks

By Zoila Palma:  Cuba was plunged into another nationwide blackout on Tuesday after the National Electric System (SEN) collapsed, marking the third countrywide outage in just two weeks.

Officials said the blackout occurred around midday after a generating unit in the eastern province of Holguín experienced a malfunction that triggered a sudden change in the power grid’s frequency. Authorities immediately activated restoration protocols to gradually reconnect electricity through isolated “micro-islands” serving essential facilities.

The latest outage comes as Cuba faces a worsening fuel crisis.

Since January, the island has struggled with dwindling fuel supplies after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, further straining the country’s economy. Cuba currently produces only about 40 percent of the fuel it needs, and officials have not identified a solution to secure additional fuel imports.

As restoration efforts continued, electricity was gradually returned to parts of Havana, with authorities reporting that about four percent of the capital had regained power by Tuesday afternoon.

Hospitals in the provinces of Guantánamo and Cienfuegos also began receiving electricity, while power was restored to the historic center of Matanzas. Officials said priority was being given to hospitals, food processing plants, and other essential services.

The repeated blackouts have disrupted daily life across the island, where more than nine million people have endured multiple nationwide and regional outages this year.

The energy crisis has severely affected transportation, healthcare, work schedules, flights, and access to basic services such as cooking, water, internet, and telephone connectivity.

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