Millions left without power after major blackout hits Cuba's western region

Описание: (5 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba - 4 March 2026
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of street musicians playing on the "Malecon" seawall
2. Various of Jeferson Silvera and Brian Santiago playing dominoes
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jeferson Silvera, 19, local resident:
“With the blackouts, we young people have nothing else to entertain ourselves apart from this, dominoes, so we can spend time. We spend time with family."
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Brian Santiago, 22, resident:
“We have no telephone, no communication. We will keep playing and see what happens. What else can we do?”
5. Bicitaxi with rechargeable lamp on the street
6. Genoveva Torres and her sister in interview
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Genoveva Torres, retired:
“My God, until when? Then we won't eat. We'll have to eat bread again. All that because why?”
8. ​​Wide of city skyline
9. Police cars patrolling city
10. Elderly woman in wheelchair sitting in her doorway
11. People in the street, car lights
12. Various of moon illuminating the city
STORYLINE:
A blackout has left millions of people without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.

Government radio station Radio Rebelde quoted an energy official as saying that it could take at least 72 hours to restore operations at one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric power plants, where a shutdown sparked the outage. It is the second such outage to affect western Cuba in three months.

As night fell, people across Havana lingered on doorsteps and a group of musicians along the city's famed seawall played into the night.

Others played dominoes by a rechargeable lightbulb.

“With the power outages, this is the only thing we young people have to distract ourselves,” Jeferson Silvera said.

Daily, prolonged outages have become so common in Cuba that 66-year-old Genoveva Torres was waiting for power to come back on at night as usual to cook dinner. She was perturbed when told about the massive blackout.

“My God, until when?” she exclaimed. “Then we won't eat. We'll have to eat bread again,” said Torres.

State media reported that the outage was caused by a shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant east of Havana following a leak in its boiler.

Last month, Cuba’s government implemented austere fuel-saving measures and warned that jet fuel wouldn’t be available at nine airports until mid-March.

Prior to the attack on Venezuela, the island already was struggling with a crumbling electric grid, generation deficits and interruptions in fuel supplies.

AP Video shot by Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán

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