Cuba's national electric grid collapses, leaving millions without power Cuba's national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the country's grid operator said, leaving around 10 million people without power amid a U.S.-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the island's already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE announced on social media it was investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that have persisted for hours or days. This weekend’s outages sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run country. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure but had not yet identified the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Efforts to restore power began with small clusters of circuits, or microsystems, across the country, an early but necessary step in bringing the full grid back online. The United States has intensified pressure on Cuba this year, particularly after capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Cuba’s most important foreign benefactor, in January. U.S. President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells oil to the island, further straining Cuba’s already antiquated grid. Cuba has entered talks with the United States in hopes of resolving the crisis. Trump has claimed recently that Cuba is on the verge of collapse and is eager to negotiate a deal. Cubans have grown accustomed to power outages, which are often linked to oil supply shortages or systemic failures in the grid. According to LSEG ship tracking data, Cuba has received only two small oil shipments this year. The first tanker, from Mexico, arrived in January at the Havana port, while the second, from Jamaica, delivered liquefied petroleum gas in February.#us #venezuela #cuba #une #cuba_grid
