The Cuban content creator Niorleidis traveled to Baltony, in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, to visit her family and found that the community had been without electricity for over two weeks due to the theft of oil from the local transformers.
"Leaving Guatemala for worse conditions, what can I say, they have been without power for, I believe, more than two weeks," the woman shared in a reel posted this Thursday on Instagram, where she documented her experience in the rural area.
The cause of the prolonged blackout was not only the national energy crisis, but also an increasingly common aggravating factor in Cuba: the theft of dielectric oil from transformers.
That liquid acts as an insulator and coolant, which is why its removal renders the equipment unusable. Power service disruptions can last for days or weeks.
"The problem is that they had stolen the oil from the transformers. In the end, innocent people always pay for the sins of others," reported Niorleidis in the video.
Without electricity, the appliances in her grandmother's house became completely useless.
"Yes, there are appliances in the house, but there is no electricity. Without electricity, it's as if those appliances don't exist," he said while showing the rice cookers and electric burners.
To prepare the milk for a young child, she had to resort to the wood stove, something she is not accustomed to. “If there’s one thing I’m not good at, it’s this,” she admitted with a laugh, as she struggled to light the fire.
The partial solution came thanks to the resources they brought with them from their place of origin. "We brought a solar panel that was very helpful," they shared, adding that they also brought a rechargeable portable fan to care for the child.
The phenomenon of dielectric oil theft has spread throughout the island with severe consequences. In the municipality of Songo-La Maya, when a transformer exploded during an attempt to steal that oil.
In Amancio, Las Tunas, the theft of 600 liters left 40% of the municipality without electricity, affecting about 4,947 customers for over 48 hours.
Baltony, the community that Niorleidis visits, also bears decades of neglect. What once was the site of a prosperous sugar mill that employed up to 3,175 workers during harvest was shut down in the 2000s during the crisis of the sugar industry driven by the regime.
As a chronicle about the place described, "what was once prosperous is now just another area of poverty in the country, overshadowed by the energy crisis."
Niorleidis closed her video with a question: "How long will this last?"
Filed under: