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The provincial newspaper Sierra Maestra, the official organ of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, published a note on its social media this Sunday, in which it attributed the collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) in the eastern part of the Island to sabotage.
Minutes later, the text was deleted without any explanation and replaced by a much shorter version that omitted all references to the alleged intentional action.
In the original post, the outlet quoted statements from the governor of Santiago de Cuba, Manuel Falcón Hernández, shared on his Telegram channel.
According to that version, “unscrupulous individuals” allegedly sabotaged facilities in Nuevitas, causing the firing of the 220 kV Nuevitas-Tunas line and, as a result, the total disconnection of the electrical system from Las Tunas to Guantánamo.
The text described the act as a "cowardly and criminal act" that threatened the well-being of the people.
However, shortly after, the post disappeared from the Facebook page of Sierra Maestra and was replaced by a brief message stating that the eastern part of the country had been reconnected to the SEN around midnight and that the service was gradually being restored in the region.
The bizarre turn gave rise to questions on social media, even among figures from the government. The vice president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, commented under the new post: “What was that?”, along with a screenshot of the original article that spoke of sabotage.
The confusion contrasted with previous information provided by other official spokespersons. On his social media, journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso had initially asserted that the system disconnection occurred due to “adverse weather conditions” in the area and the low generation capacity in the east at the time of the collapse.
The blackout began on the night of September 7 after the shooting of the Nuevitas-Tunas line, leaving millions of Cubans without electricity for over six hours. In Santiago de Cuba, the lack of light triggered a pot-banging protest in the streets of the city, where residents shouted “We want electricity!”.
The episode reflects not only the fragility of the SEN, which has a chronic generation deficit, but also the contradictions in the official discourse, which fails to provide a clear and coherent explanation of the causes of a collapse that affected the entire eastern region of the country.
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