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The new blackout that left Havana and several provinces in western Cuba without electricity in the early hours of Wednesday sparked a wave of comments filled with outrage, sarcasm, and fatigue on social media, where many Cubans described the situation as "a daily torture."
According to the Electric Union (UNE), the disconnection affected provinces from Cienfuegos to Pinar del Río, leaving the capital completely without service. Hours later, the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso explained that the cause was a failure in a transmission line between Santa Cruz del Norte and the Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, which caused an overload and the shutdown of several generating plants. Although authorities assured that the system did not reach a total disconnection, the incident reignited the frustration of a population exhausted by continuous blackouts.
On the pages of Cubadebate, from UNE Nacional, and in user comments on CiberCuba Noticias, reactions were counted by the thousands. "Just disconnect communism that has been on life support for years," one user wrote, while another warned that "this government is a show." In the same vein, someone summarized the feelings of many: "Who do they think they're fooling? Just declare total collapse already; this mess is embarrassing."
The irony also served as a release valve. "Work a little faster to see if we can cook today, since there's no gas either. And while your favorite friends Paula and Tina figure out the costumes and makeup, we'll be here until dawn with this nonsense," commented a woman, sarcastically referring to the slow restoration. Another wrote: "Only Mayabeque and Pinar... I hadn't realized, since we live with blackouts and only two hours of electricity anyway."
Other comments pointed directly to the political system: “The disaster, the sham has a name: utopian socialism, a revolution that does not change, corruption, and a government that only cares about perpetuating itself in power.” For many, the routine of power outages has exhausted any possible justification: “This just can’t go on any longer, we’re in December and we can't cook, sleep, or live.”
"Havana woke up in the dark, but Cuba lives like this every day."
The complaints also reflected the perceived inequality between regions. "It's not Havana, it's the whole island," wrote one user. Another noted: "The eastern provinces are disconnected because they only get power intermittently in some circuits." From Las Tunas, someone asked, "Who will restore power to the municipalities in Tunas? We've been without electricity in Puerto Padre since two in the afternoon, and nothing has changed. It's abuse; they don't care about children or the elderly, just abusers."
On the page of CiberCuba Noticias, dozens of people agreed that the situation is repeating across the country. “Havana alone is not the country; we are all always in the dark,” wrote one person, while another added: “In Camagüey it’s the same; there has been no power since the morning.” A woman from Havana summarized the collective frustration: “This is already unbearable and abusive; the children wake up drowsy to study, with mosquitoes, heat, epidemics, and no gas to cook. They are slowly killing us.”
Humor, ever-present, once again intertwined with frustration. "You're going to end up in the wrong basket," joked one user, while another replied, "That's an achievement of the revolution." "Anyway, we hardly ever have any power; Havana itself doesn't have it, and we're all Cubans," wrote a man. Another woman concluded with bitter irony: "Havana woke up in darkness, but Cuba has been this way for years."
An increasingly unstable electrical system
In a subsequent update, Alonso reported that the restoration process would be "faster" because the system did not experience a total disconnection, and confirmed that the energization of substations in the west had already begun, a necessary step to gradually restore service. The official explanation detailed that the failure occurred in a transmission line connecting the Santa Cruz del Norte plant to the Guiteras.
The episode is another reflection of the structural fragility of the National Electroenergetic System, which in recent months has recorded deficits of over 2,000 megawatts and several partial collapses. While the authorities insist on discussing technical failures and overloads, Cubans sum up their reality with a phrase often repeated in comments: “This is not just a blackout; it’s a country that’s shut down.”
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