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Residents of Block 3 in Jesús María, Old Havana, publicly reported that the director of the Tallapiedra power plant laughed in their faces when they brought up their electrical issues and left without addressing their concerns, in an incident that highlights the institutional indifference towards the energy crisis affecting Cuba.
The complaint was made by Ady Adina on Facebook: "I am making this complaint publicly so that it reaches the ears of those who need to hear it."
In Jesús María, Old Havana, Block 3, directly across from the Talla Piedra thermoelectric plant located at Águila/Puerta Cerrada and Avenida del Puerto, we have been standing since 10 am, trying to peacefully resolve a power outage that keeps recurring and prevents us from having electricity.
According to the complainant, the outage had started at four in the afternoon the previous day.
When the neighbors called the electric company to seek a solution, the response was that they would have to cover the cost of the repair themselves: "Since 4 PM yesterday, we’ve been without electricity and when we called, they told us we have to buy the breaker ourselves if we want to have electricity."
What angered the residents the most was the attitude of the person in charge of the facility: "The director of the Talla Piedra thermoelectric plant drove away laughing in front of us, saying that it was not his problem, and left," Adina recounted in her public complaint on Facebook.
The neighbors decided to stand their ground in front of the facility until they received a response: "We are not leaving here until our problem is resolved."
The incident occurs at the worst time of the Cuban electric crisis in decades. The Electric Union reported on Wednesday a generation deficit that reached 2,113 MW at 8:40 PM, a record for the year, with a mere availability of 1,230 MW against a demand of 3,250 MW.
The underlying cause is the lack of fuel: the government acknowledged that in April 2026, only one of the eight necessary ships arrived monthly at a minimum, which has resulted in blackouts exceeding 20 hours a day in several provinces.
Habana Vieja is one of the most affected municipalities. In April, the outages left more than 200,000 Habaneros without regular access to drinking water, as acknowledged by the director of the Aqueduct of Aguas de La Habana.
Desperation has sparked a wave of protests throughout the capital. On Wednesday, residents of San Miguel del Padrón gathered in front of the municipal government chanting "Power and food!", while residents of Nuevo Vedado protested with pots and pans near the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
The Tallapiedra thermoelectric plant, with over 60 years of operation, was officially retired as per the acknowledgment of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, in September 2024, although the facility remains a landmark in the electricity distribution of Havana.
The UN warned in April that the Cuban energy crisis has a "systemic and increasingly significant" impact on health, water, food, education, and transportation, following more than three months of inadequate fuel supply, and activated a in 63 municipalities across eight provinces.
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