Cuba Blackout

Cuba is again without electricity as power grid has collapsed for a third time this month. The outage comes as the communist government battles with a decaying infrastructure and a U.S.-imposed oil blockade. The state-owned Cuban Electric Union reported a total blackout across the island without giving a cause for the outage. Authorities said they were working to restore power. Power outages, whether nationwide or regional, have become relatively common in the last two years due to breakdowns in the aging infrastructure.

Cuba has begun restarting its power grid after another nationwide blackout left millions without electricity. Officials said Sunday about 72,000 customers in Havana got power back, including five hospitals. Crews set up small local systems to feed key sites in several provinces. Officials blamed U.S. sanctions and pressure tied to oil supplies. President Miguel Díaz-Canel says Cuba has not received foreign oil for three months. Residents describe broken appliances, water worries and exhaustion from constant outages. Officials link the collapse to a shutdown at a thermoelectric plant.