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The renowned Cuban actor Luis Alberto García complained this Monday that he has been without electricity for 20 consecutive hours and counting, and that the previous weekend—from Saturday to Sunday—he was without power for 18 hours. "An unforgettable sauna weekend," he wrote, before expressing the sentiment that encapsulates the pain of millions: "Children are the ones who truly know how to suffer."
García also predicted with bitter irony the summer ahead: "I can't imagine the scale of the hellish vacation plan they will gift us."
The announcement comes at the worst moment of the Cuban electricity crisis in decades. This Monday, the Unión Eléctrica reported only 1,100 MW of availability against a demand of 2,750 MW, with a nighttime impact forecast of 1,990 MW.
In Havana, power outages have reached between 20 and 22 hours daily during May, with cycles of only an hour and a half to four hours of electricity. The record deficit for the year was recorded on May 13, when the gap reached 2,153 MW during peak hours.
On May 16, the maximum impact was 2,041 MW, leaving 51% of the country without electricity simultaneously. On May 12, 75% of the thermal units were out of service, according to El País, with the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant repeatedly out of operation.
The impact on children has specific faces. On May 14, a Cuban mother shared images of her seven-month-old baby covered in mosquito bites after sleeping without electricity.
"It should be a shame for them to have 7-month-old children and kids of any age sleeping without electricity, in the heat and with mosquitoes," she wrote.
The report highlights a real health crisis: Cuba ended 2025 with at least 65 official deaths from dengue and chikungunya and over 81,900 infections.
In November 2025, the Ministry of Health reported 34 minors hospitalized in serious or critical condition due to chikungunya, with children accounting for 65% of the severe cases in Santiago de Cuba.
García has become one of the most critical public voices against the regime from within the island. In January 2026, he rejected the official slogan "to doubt is to betray", calling it "one of the most fascist statements."
In March, he suspended his cultural gathering of over 15 years stating that the country is "hitting rock bottom" and that "we currently do not see the end of this very dark tunnel."
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, described the situation of the National Electroenergetic System on May 14 as "acute, critical, and extremely tense," while Cuba remains mired in the electrical crisis with no signs of recovery in sight.
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