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A nighttime photograph of Havana immersed in darkness, published in the Facebook group Empresa Eléctrica de La Habana, sparked a wave of ironic and furious comments from citizens.
Cubans report that blackouts continue with the same intensity in Havana, impacting some circuits more than others, despite the order from Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz to distribute them more equitably.
On Thursday, Marrero led a working session at the Provincial Load Office in Havana to assess the electrical crisis in the capital. He ordered a review of the rotation of blocks and circuits, prioritizing areas with the highest accumulated hours of outages.
The measure was met with widespread skepticism. The people of Havana pointed out that the cuts continued without adhering to the prime minister's directive, hence the phrase circulating on social media: “They do not respect Marrero”.
The popular irony has a backdrop of unprecedented crisis. The national electricity deficit reached a historic record of 2,204 MW in May 2026, exceeding the previous high of 2,075 MW recorded on March 6.
The immediate trigger is the fuel crisis in the country, which worsened with the ninth breakdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the most powerful plant, which went offline on May 14 at 04:58 due to a leak in the boiler. This caused a partial collapse of the National Electric System from Ciego de Ávila to Guantánamo.
The crisis was not limited to electricity: 376,055 people in Havana experienced disruptions in their drinking water supply, with 66,961 of them affected by breaks and the rest due to a lack of electricity in the pumping system.
The outrage had been building up for days. On May 8th, in the same Facebook group of the Electric Company of Havana, the phrase "In the boss's block of the UNE, there is power" went viral, highlighting the inequality in the distribution of the service.
The protests extended to at least 12 municipalities in Havana —Guanabacoa, Marianao, Playa, San Miguel del Padrón, Luyanó, Santos Suárez, and Habana del Este— with barricades, bonfires, and pot-banging between May 13 and 15.
The partial entry of Guiteras into the system, reported on Monday, did not manage to prevent widespread blackouts across the island, which is being described as the most severe energy crisis of the year.
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