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While thousands of residents in Holguín endure daily power outages of up to 18 hours, the Electric Company of Holguín posted a celebratory message on Facebook this Wednesday boasting about Cuban flags and beautification efforts at its facilities in preparation for International Workers' Day.
The text of the publication leaves no doubt about its tone: "The Cuban flags are waving throughout the institution, while cleanliness and love for what we do bring color to our center. May May 1st arrive with all the dignity of the workers from Holguín!"
The contrast with reality is stark. During April 2026, the electricity deficit in Cuba has fluctuated between 1,012 MW and 1,945 MW during peak nighttime hours, affecting up to 62% of the national territory simultaneously.
The worst moment of the month was recorded on April 1, when the impact reached 1,945 MW, with a mere availability of 1,202 MW against a demand of 3,050 MW.
Holguín is one of the eastern provinces historically most affected by blackouts, with blackouts of up to 18 hours a day recorded since 2025, exacerbated by the deterioration of the infrastructure and the disruption of Venezuelan crude since December of that year.
A donation of 100,000 tons of Russian crude, processed at the Cienfuegos refinery, enabled the generation of 1,800 MW on April 19 and reduced the forecasted deficit for this Tuesday to 1,012 MW, the lowest since November 2025. The authorities themselves, however, described it as "a temporary relief."
The pattern of masking the crisis during key political dates is not new. In 2025, the Electric Union inexplicably reduced the forecast for blackouts to 1,185 MW for May 1 despite widespread failures and fuel shortages, resuming the outages the following day. In 2024, Cubans were already warning on social media: "On the second, a deficit when the parade ends".
On April 18, while more than 200,000 Cubans in Cienfuegos remained without water due to power outages and twelve families in Vedado had been without electricity for over 100 hours because of a simple cable issue, the regime awarded the National Vanguardia Collective Flag to the Cienfuegos Electric Company in an institutional recognition event that also sparked public outrage.
Díaz-Canel publicly acknowledged on April 16 that the fuel shortage is the cause of the blackouts, even though in August 2022 he promised to "minimize the blackouts before the end of the year," a promise he never fulfilled.
Experts estimate that restoring the Cuban electrical system would require an investment of 10 billion dollars, an unreachable figure for the regime, which instead allocates human resources and institutional time to hang flags for the parade.
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