By Nelson Acosta and Alien Fernandez
CARDENAS, Cuba (Reuters) – Power outages totaling 14 hours or more a day were reported across much of crisis-hit Cuba on Thursday, leaving millions of residents defenseless in the summer heat and humidity.
The state energy company said disruptions had taken six power stations out of service on the outdated and poorly maintained electricity grid.
The monopoly provider promised only minor relief for the weekend, with humidity forecast at around 90% and temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
There was no power on Thursday evening in Matanzas province, just east of Havana, except in the famous tourist resort of Varadero and key institutions such as hospitals, according to reports on local social media and Reuters witnesses.
Residents seemed resigned to their fate and did not want to give up last names as they sought fresh air in the dark streets of the city of Santa Marta in the municipality of Cardenas.
“We are already adapted, the Cuban lives like this, quietly laughing, with light or without light,” said Doris, as she sat outside her home with two adult sons.
The blackouts, which disrupt daily life and the economy, have ravaged the communist-led country since 2021 and sparked rare protests. They reflect a deepening economic crisis marked by shortages of basic goods, double-digit inflation and a lack of money to import fuel and infrastructure parts.
Ariel Rodriguez, a 52-year-old restaurant worker on the other side of the Caribbean island east of Santiago de Cuba, where protests demanding food and relief broke out in March, said by phone that the power outages had since eased but were getting worse. again.
“Over the past two weeks, power outages have lasted an average of 10 hours per day, from 7am to 1pm and at night from 7pm to 11pm,” he said.
“Yesterday they added 11 p.m. to 3:15 a.m.,” Rodriguez added.
Residents of the eastern province of Holguin and the central provinces of Camaguey and Cienfuegos described similar conditions.
Havana has been largely spared from the power outages, which come in bursts of four hours or more, often multiple times over 24 hours.
