HAVANA—The Cuban capital Havana will begin blackouts in August, has canceled carnivals and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media announced Saturday.
The capital, home to a fifth of the population of 11.2 million and the center of economic activity in Cuba, was spared the daily power outages of four or more hours that the rest of the island has endured for months.
Power outages have sparked several small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled a day of unprecedented unrest across the country as discontent boiled over.
For now, a blackout schedule will mean that each of Havana’s six municipalities will have its power cut every three days during the midday rush hour, according to the local Communist Party daily, Tribuna de la Habana, e which reported on a meeting of the premises. the authorities.
The disruptions reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with tough new US sanctions on the island in 2019 and worsened with the pandemic that devastated tourism and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rising prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as a crumbling infrastructure. The country’s economy shrank 10.9 percent in 2020, recovering only 1.3 percent last year.
Cubans have endured more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to buy scarce goods, high prices and transportation difficulties. The disruptions have only added to the frustration, leading to an exodus of more than 150,000 Cubans since October to the United States and more elsewhere.
“This is the moment to show solidarity and contribute so that the rest of Cuba suffers less from unwanted disruptions,” said the head of Havana’s Communist Party, Luis Antonio Torres, as quoted by the Tribune.
Torres and others at the meeting insisted they were acting in solidarity with other Cubans, not out of necessity, and announced other measures such as mass layoffs to shut down state-owned companies, work from home and a 20 percent cut in energy allocations for the private ones. businesses with high consumption. The canceled carnival was to be held next month.
Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin American and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, offered a different assessment than Torres. He said the entire power grid was close to collapse after recent fires at two of the 20 now-obsolete power plants, with others constantly breaking down.
“When you continue to use equipment beyond the capital maintenance schedule, it goes into a downward spiral with no short-term solution,” he told Reuters.
“The planned announced supplies are not solidarity, but a necessity to avoid a possible total collapse of the system,” Pinon said.
By Marc Frank
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