The Union of Young Communists (UJC) published a video on Facebook this week in which it claims, with all due seriousness, that the Cuban electricity crisis is not the result of a "failed government" but rather the U.S. embargo — and this comes just as the Russian crude that briefly alleviated the blackouts had already run out.
The video, published around May 1st, responds to statements by President Donald Trump, who called the lack of electricity in Cuba a problem of "incompetence." The UJC counters with its strongest argument: "It only took receiving a single shipment of Russian oil for the national electrical system to meet its demand, something that had not happened since February."
What the video elegantly omits is that this single ship — the Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil donated by Russia — docked in Matanzas on March 31, began distribution on April 17, and its reserves were depleted by the end of that same month. By April 30, the electricity deficit had once again exceeded 1,500 MW.
The UJC acknowledges, almost in passing, that "yes, we have technological problems, management issues," but insists that pointing this out is equivalent to "hiding or justifying the inhumanity of the blockade." The rhetorical question posed by the video—"is it a failed government or an energy blockade?"—received an immediate response in the comments, although not the one they expected.
"Buajajajjaja this account posts amazing memes," commented the young influencer Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente (Anna Bensi). "And how do you explain the blackouts, which had already been unbearable for two years before the oil blockade?" pointed out another netizen. "Great joke in the video," the mockery continued.
Another comment pointed directly to the geography of the "improvement": "I believe Santiago didn't notice that oil because the blackouts are still ongoing and quite severe." While Havana accumulated approximately five days without outages between April 20 and April 25 thanks to Russian fuel, Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Moa were experiencing blackouts of up to 24 hours daily.
The forum participants didn't mince words in their comments. "Hahaha, that's called the May Day effect to get people out to parade," one remarked ironically. "Guess what, the last blackout lasted 28 hours, what an improvement," added another. "We're better off without the blockade and without communism too," pointed out another user astutely.
The structural reality that the UJC video prefers not to mention is that Cuban thermoelectric plants operate with equipment that is over 50 years old, when their lifespan is only 25 to 30 years. In 2024, 366 distributed generation units —equivalent to 680 MW— were out of service due to a lack of spare parts, and nine of the 16 thermoelectric units remained inoperative in 2026. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz himself acknowledged in October 2024 that "the shortage of fuel is the major factor" of the collapse, even before Trump signed any decree.
Cuba needs eight fuel ships per month to meet its electricity demand. Between January and April 2026, it received one. Miguel Díaz-Canel himself admitted that the country "went four months without receiving a drop of fuel, relying on reserves." The second Russian tanker announced, the Sea Horse Universal, erratically changed course in the North Atlantic without confirmation of arrival, with a possible delay until the end of May. Meanwhile, the projected deficit for this Saturday reached 1,415 MW, with an estimated impact of 1,445 MW.
The UJC celebrates as a historic victory what lasted shorter than the enthusiasm of a May Day parade. And while the video gathers comments that refute it paragraph by paragraph, the youth organization of the Communist Party continues to avoid answering the simplest question posed by its own followers: "Can someone tell me a minister in this country who has the blockade at home?"
The response, much like electricity in Cuba, is conspicuously absent.
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