A video posted on Facebook shows how residents of a building in Santiago de Cuba have set up wood stoves on their balconies to cook, due to the complete lack of electricity and domestic gas.
The recording, which lasts one minute and 28 seconds, accumulated nearly 16,000 views within just a few days.
The author of the video, the Cuban priest Leandro NaunHung, titled the post with a phrase that says it all: "The countryside has arrived in the city! Wood-burning stoves in the buildings!".
In the images, an elderly woman is seen learning to use the makeshift stove while the religious man explains to her, "It's designed for you. It has enough space."
At one point, NaunHung comments to the lady that she looks "dim," and she summarizes in a few words the accumulation of hardships she suffers: "At two-thirty in the morning, they turned on the water for me. At that hour, I got up to fill the barrels. How do you think I must be?"
At the end of the video, with the rustic stove installed, the woman expresses: "Yesterday I felt overwhelmed cooking, but I believe that tomorrow or the day after, when the time comes to do it, I will be happy."
The scene is not an isolated case.
The Electric Company of Santiago de Cuba admitted this month that blackouts can last for up to 24 consecutive hours in several areas.
The Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant, which supplies the province, is operating with its units 3 and 6 damaged, while at the national level nine thermoelectric units remain out of service.
The electricity generation deficit in Cuba ranges from 1,800 to 1,927 megawatts during peak hours, with a mere availability of 1,123 megawatts compared to a demand that can exceed 3,000.
The deputy minister admitted the collapse of distributed generation due to a lack of diesel, and Minister Vicente de la O Levy acknowledged that domestic gas production has decreased due to a lack of funding.
The phenomenon of cooking with firewood in urban buildings has intensified dramatically. Some residents have even gone so far as to dismantle doors and windows from their own homes to use them as fuel.
The practice carries serious risks: fires in buildings in La Habana del Este and Santiago de Cuba have been documented as a direct consequence of cooking with open flames, and smoke in enclosed or semi-open spaces causes severe respiratory damage.
On February 25, two fires shook Havana in one night, linked to makeshift facilities during blackouts.
The National Electric System has collapsed at least seven times in 16 months. The latest incident occurred last Saturday and caused a new massive blackout across the country.
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