Power restored to western Cuba after grid failure

Power was restored to Havana and other parts of western Cuba early Sunday following a major grid failure that plunged five provinces into darkness on Saturday, marking the latest severe disruption in a deepening national energy crisis. The state-run electric company, UNE, reported a "partial collapse" of the national grid occurred at 6:07 p.m. local time, affecting the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana, and Matanzas.

This outage adds to a pattern of increasingly frequent and prolonged blackouts that have crippled daily life across the island. In recent weeks, power cuts have lasted more than 30 hours in the capital, with some areas experiencing outages for several days. Since the start of 2026, Cuba has recorded five nationwide blackouts, three of which occurred in July within a 10-day period. Overall, the country has suffered 10 total power outages since late 2024, severely impacting its population of approximately 9.4 million people.

The repeated failures have left residents weary and frustrated. Julian Gonzalez, a 72-year-old carpenter in Havana, described a life of constant uncertainty, saying people live "like fireflies here in the dark all the time."...