Cuban actor on the blackouts in Havana: “These are no longer blocks; this is a wall.”

Androx RodríguezPhoto © Instagram Androx Rodríguez

The Cuban actor and content creator Androx Rodríguez published a video on Instagram in which he reflects on the electricity crisis in Havana and concludes that the situation can no longer be described as a problem of 'blocks', but rather as 'a wall', implicitly raising the question of what should be done about walls.

Rodríguez says: "I feel an urgent need to stand up for the people of block 4, because the people of block 2 already had someone to stand up for them. What is happening? Not just block 4, but also 1, 2, 16, 25, and 30, because it's no longer a matter of blocks; this is a wall, and what do we need to do with walls?"

The Electric Company of Havana organizes and announces power outages through a system of numbered blocks that, in theory, rotate to distribute the blackouts evenly.

However, the magnitude of the electricity deficit has rendered that system irrelevant. In practice, almost all blocks remain without electricity simultaneously for most of the day.

On March 15, the deficit of the national electric system exceeded 2,000 MW during peak nighttime hours, with an availability of only 1,250 MW compared to a demand of 2,220 MW.

Multiple units of the Mariel, Santa Cruz, Felton, and Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plants remained out of service, and the chronic shortage of diesel fuel was cited by the Unión Eléctrica as one of the main obstacles to restoring the system.

The crisis has sparked protests and banging of pots and pans for at least ten consecutive days in multiple neighborhoods of Havana: El Cerro, Marianao, Vedado, Miramar, Jesús María, Plaza de la Revolución, Mantilla, El Cotorro, Nuevo Vedado, Palatino, Centro Habana, and Alamar, among others.

Androx Rodríguez is not unfamiliar with documenting the hardships of blackouts with irony. In July 2025, he went viral with a video about doing laundry during a blackout, in which he showcased the process of washing with an old Russian Aurika washing machine during a power outage, concluding with the phrase: "Energy is neither created nor destroyed, we take it away. Electric Company."

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CiberCuba Editorial Team

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