HAVANA, 20 Sept. - (ANA) - Cuba’s power grid collapsed once again on Friday, leaving millions of people across the island without electricity for at least the sixth time since U.S. President Donald Trump cut off fuel to the island in January.

 

The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced the islandwide power outage on its official X account and added that officials had begun “activating service-restoration protocols.”

 

“No one can stand these constant blackouts. There isn’t enough food, there’s no water, there’s no electricity -- you have no idea,” Mercedes Rodriguez, a 60-year-old worker in Havana, told The Associated Press as she waited for public transportation to return home. “The country is in such a sad state, and there are no words for what we’re going through.”

 

According to Cuban authorities, a failure reportedly occurred in transmission lines in the western part of the country, causing the system to collapse in that area — as far as Matanzas province — and the eastern section of the island was subsequently disconnected.

 

The official newspaper Granma reported that “unstable” weather conditions further aggravated the grid’s situation.

 

By dusk, power had been restored to 5% of users in Havana, which has a total of about 862,000 customers, according to official data. Small power-distribution “micro-islands” were being established in the provinces of Camagüey, Pinar del Río and Granma. Some systems serving hospitals and other emergency facilities were being reactivated.

 

The two most recent nationwide blackouts occurred in early August, following others in July and March, as well as several regional outages. - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/20 September 2026 - -