A photograph of Havana nearly in darkness at dusk, taken from an elevated position near the Malecón, went viral this Tuesday after being published by Juan Pablo Carreira —known on social media as "Juan Doe"— a communications official in the Argentine government of Javier Milei, on his X account.
Carreira accompanied the image with the text: "Cuba completely in the dark. Only government buildings and luxury hotels run by the Castro family have electricity. There's so much talk about late-stage capitalism. Here, ladies and gentlemen, you have late-stage communism."
The photograph shows colonial and art deco style buildings with deteriorated facades, the sea in the background, and only a few visible points of artificial light throughout the city, creating a contrast that encapsulates the energy reality facing the island.
The post occurs during the worst energy moment in Cuba so far in 2026. On May 14, the Electric Union reported a deficit of 2,113 MW, with only 1,230 MW available against a demand of 3,250 MW, aggravated by the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant due to a leak in the boiler.
Two days later, on May 16, the maximum impact reached 2,041 MW, leaving 51% of the country without electricity at the same time. In Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, over 50 consecutive hours without electricity were reported.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged blackouts lasting 20 to 22 hours daily in some circuits of Havana and described the situation as a "special case."
The contrast between the darkness experienced by the population and the lighting provided to tourist hotels is a documented phenomenon recognized by the regime itself. In January 2026, Havana was completely dark for more than six hours while the tourist hotels remained illuminated. In February, there were reports of hotels with electricity and special dinners while the rest of the country endured massive outages.
The Cuban government itself officially justifies this asymmetry. In February 2026, the Cuban Tourism Office in London guaranteed hotel energy autonomy through "independent power systems and backup generators," assuring that the necessary fuels "have been properly secured" and that tourism operations are proceeding "normally."
The crisis has structural roots. Since December 2025, Cuba has stopped receiving Venezuelan oil, as acknowledged by Díaz-Canel himself in a televised speech. Cuba has experienced at least seven total collapses of the electrical system in 18 months, including a nationwide blackout on March 16, 2026.
The Cuban-American researcher Jorge Piñón warned that rebuilding the electrical system would take between three to five years and require an investment of between 8 billion and 10 billion dollars, an amount unattainable for an economy in collapse after 67 years of communist dictatorship.
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