A video posted on TikTok by a Cuban identified as Alain shows his mother doing laundry at 1:30 AM, forced to do so by the blackouts that have made the early morning the only time of day when there is electricity in Cuba. The recording was published on the TikTok platform and garnered over 2,100 views and 198 likes in just a few hours.
In the 16-second clip, Alain expresses his frustration about the situation: his mother has to go out to do laundry at night, disturbing the neighbors with the noise of the washing machine, and he concludes that even washing machines are not very useful on the island. In the video description, he wrote: "How long is this going to last, having to wash at one in the morning and then get up early to do housework, my God, how long will this go on?"
The scene is not an isolated case. With power outages in March 2026 ranging between 13 and 24 hours daily in Havana and other provinces, Cubans have had to reorganize their domestic routines—washing, cooking, pumping water—for the brief moments when electricity is available, which often coincide with the early morning hours.
The National Electric System (SEN) has experienced total collapse at least seven times in a year and a half. The last collapse occurred on March 21 and 22, when the shutdown of Unit 6 at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant triggered a cascading effect that left 90% of Havana without electricity. The generation deficit reached its highest recorded level on March 14: 2,040 megawatts of deficit, while normal demand exceeds 3,000 megawatts.
In Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, more than 45 consecutive hours without electricity were reported, which paralyzed the water pumping. A building in the same province suffered over 100 hours without power, with damages to appliances due to voltage surges.
The crisis has structural roots: Soviet-era thermoelectric plants over 30 years old, lack of maintenance, and chronic fuel shortages. Since 2020, electricity generation has dropped by 25%, reaching 15,918 gigawatt-hours in 2025. Cuba produces only 40% of the oil it needs and relies on imports from Venezuela and Russia, which have decreased. The executive order signed by Donald Trump on January 29, 2026, imposing extraordinary tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, further exacerbated the fuel shortage, according to LA Times on the U.S. oil embargo. The Díaz-Canel government itself acknowledged in March that there are no reserves.
Social unrest has erupted in cacerolazo protests in Ciego de Ávila and other provinces such as Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Matanzas. Cubalex reported at least 14 arrests since March 6th. In Morón, Ciego de Ávila, protesters even set fire to the headquarters of the Communist Party during protests on March 14th and 15th.
The video of Alain, with its tone of resignation and exhaustion, captures the reality of a population that has been surviving the massive blackouts for months and adapting even the most basic household tasks to the whims of a collapsing electrical system.
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