US Politics
Cuba facing severe energy crisis as supplies of Russian oil run dry
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Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country’s energy and mines minister said, as a U.S. blockade strangles the island of critical resources.
“We have absolutely no fuel [oil], and absolutely no diesel,” said energy minister Vicente de la O Levyin an interview with state-run media.
The national grid, he said, is in a “critical” state, and Cuba has “no reserves” of energy.
The capital city Havana has suffered its worst rolling blackouts in decades, prompting large protests Wednesday evening in the largest night of demonstrations since the energy crisis took hold in the country.
Hundreds of angry Cubans filled the streets of the capital, shouting “Turn on the lights!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated!” as they blocked roads with burning piles of trash.
The blackouts have significantly worsened since Donald Trump assumed office for his second term last January and imposed a blockade on the country. Parts of Havana have been plunged into 20- to 22-hour blackout periods, said De la O Levy.
The U.S. president has been open about his intention to oust the island’s communist-run government, and has threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplies Cuba with fuel.
The U.S. has offered to send $100 million in aid to Cuba in exchange for “meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system,” but the offer has not been accepted.
“The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have absolutely none; diesel, of which we have absolutely none — I am being repetitive — the only thing we have is gas from our wells, where production has grown,” said De la O Levy.
Rodolfo Alonso, a resident of Havana who was protesting in his neighborhood of Playa — which went for more than 40 hours without electricity — said old people in his community are suffering and food is spoiling.
“We started banging pots to see if they’d give us just three hours of electricity. That’s all we want. This isn’t a political problem,” he said.
Neither Mexico nor Venezuela, once top suppliers of oil to Cuba, have sent fuel to the island since Trump’s order threatening tariffs.
Only a single large oil tanker, the Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin, has delivered crude oil to Cuba since December, providing temporary relief to the island in April.
The renewed power cuts in Havana and beyond come as the U.S. blockade on fuel imports to Cuba enters its fourth month, crippling public services across the Caribbean island of nearly 10 million people.
The United Nations last week called Trump’s fuel blockade unlawful, saying it had obstructed the “Cuban people’s right to development while undermining their rights to food, education, health, and water and sanitation.”