Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted to the total disconnection of the Cuban National Electric System (SEN), which occurred in the morning hours of this Friday, after the Guiteras thermoelectric plant went out of service.
"From the country's leadership, we are giving absolute priority to the attention and solution of this highly sensitive energy contingency for the nation," wrote the ruler.
"There will be no rest until his recovery," he added.
Immediately, dozens of Cubans reacted, asking him to resign from his position and for him and his government to hand over the country because the situation demands it.
"Get out, steal what remains of the country and leave at once!"; "Why don’t you leave? Take everything you have stolen and go; take it all, but please leave Cuba in peace"; "Let the Cubans who know how to rebuild this country do it"; "You are a gang of thieves, but you are also the most inept that Cuba has ever produced," have been some comments.
"Does the country's leadership contribute anything to the solution of any problem? It rather seems that in reality they are the cause of all the problems"; "Resign, incompetent"; "Get off the Mercedes and get out of power"; others wrote. "According to what they said last night, the UNE needed 300 million dollars in investment that were still not available... How much has been invested in hotels (that are empty) in the last two years? How much, damn... Priority or no priority... don't be a hypocrite!" another outraged Cuban exploded.
Shortly after 12 noon on this October 18th (local time), the Ministry of Energy and Mines announced on X that at 11:07 this morning, there was a total disconnection of the System following the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant.
The entity added that the Electric Union is working on restoring the Electric System and did not provide further details about what happened at the main and largest thermoelectric plant in the country, located in the province of Matanzas.
Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), urgently appeared on Cuban television to explain what is known so far.
The executive indicated that "the causes are being investigated" for the outage of the Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant shortly after 11 in the morning, causing the massive blackout, and stated that for now "there is no defined time" for total restoration.
Guerra Hernández explained that at this time, each of the thermoelectric units is being reviewed for their gradual restoration.
The director of UNE, Alfredo López, had already indicated that both Felton and Guiteras would be taken out of service for maintenance at some point, but it would be a planned outage.
The UNE report from October 18 mentioned the following units as damaged: unit 1 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 2 of the CTE Felton, and units 3 and 6 of the CTE Renté.
Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, unit 4 of the Cienfuegos CTE, and unit 5 of the Renté CTE are undergoing maintenance.
The Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, appeared on Thursday night in a troubled broadcast on Cuban radio and television alongside officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines to inform about the current energy crisis in the country.
Marrero Cruz made it clear that the situation is extremely critical and indicated that no short-term solution is expected. However, they said an improvement was anticipated starting this Friday after the unloading of a fuel ship.
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