Cuba hit by another total blackout as energy crisis worsens

(10 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba - 10 September 2025
1. Various of People in line to buy bread during blackout
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Kati Cordoba, civil servant:
“We are not informed, so I cannot explain it. I came to get my bread and left early because there was no electricity, and due to the outage, many things shut down.”
3. Man drinking sitting on the sidewalk
4. Various of people waiting to buy bread
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Mayte García, retiree:
"Now it is the third day of the blackout here. Everybody is outside trying to stay cool and waiting. That is why the refrigerators are empty. If you buy something, you don’t know if you’ll be able to keep it. Last time, a lot of people lost their food. We have to keep going. I never thought I would reach 65 years old, especially in August right after Fidel (Fidel Castro’s birthday on August 13th). Never in my life did I think I would live through this situation. It’s terrible, it’s scary, but it is what it is.“
6. Various of people buying food in private businesses
7. Various of traffic lights out, cars, streets
STORYLINE:
A total blackout hit Cuba on Wednesday, the latest in a series of outages blamed on aging infrastructure and fuel shortages at power plants.

It was the second island-wide outage this year, with three other blackouts reported late last year.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines said on social platform X that the latest outage could be tied to a malfunctioning thermoelectric plant, although the investigation is ongoing.

The ministry said crews were working to restore power to the island of roughly 10 million people.

Earlier this week, an outage hit Cuba’s eastern region, leaving people from Las Tunas to Guantánamo in the dark for several hours.

In February, the government suspended classes and work activities for two days given a shortage in electricity generation.

There is a severe economic and energy supply crisis in Cuba. It has worsened in recent years due to U.S. sanctions intended to put pressure on the island to change its political model.

The sanctions have prevented the Caribbean nation from having sufficient foreign currency to buy fuel or repair its aging thermoelectric plants, many of which have been operating for more than 30 years.

AP Video shot by Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán

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