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Jeannette Juaristi Torres, a Cuban television director associated with ICRT and Canal Habana, posted a series of three complaints on Facebook describing the hell that Cubans are living through due to power outages, with a phrase that encapsulates the desperation of millions: "we are dying alive, without dreams, without hopes."
What makes his testimony especially significant is that Juaristi Torres is part of the Cuban state's own media apparatus, which did not prevent him from openly rejecting the official narrative: "not everything is the fault of the embargo, and they know it."
In his first message, he recounted that his neighborhood was allocated a "pittance of 2 hours" of electricity, of which they could only enjoy 45 minutes because one phase went out. "Now God knows when the hell they will restore the power," he wrote, adding, "what I do know is that my nerves can't take it anymore."
In a second post, he identified the source of the problem: a broken cable on Calle Marina that caused the phase to drop and that no one had bothered to fix.
He also reported that the Joaquín Albarrán Polyclinic was left without solar panels because they drained during the blackout, and that the electric company stated it had 24 hours to respond to the site. "What a lack of empathy when it comes to a health institution," he wrote with indignation.
To top it off, a transformer in the area exploded. "So, bye bye electricity... We won't have any until 2027... The things that the 'blockade' causes," he joked.
In a third statement, he confirmed that no one had come to fix anything: "No one has come to repair anything... I haven't been able to enjoy the few hours of electricity they've provided... Until when??? Enough with the abuse already."
Juaristi Torres's testimony arrives at the worst moment of the Cuban electrical crisis in decades.
During May, the Electric Union reported generation deficits of between 1,800 and 2,200 MW on several days, with power outages lasting 20 to 24 hours daily in various areas of the country.
On May 25, Havana accumulated 23 hours and 11 minutes of blackout in a single day, and last Thursday a deficit of 1,957 MW was reported with sustained outages throughout the entire day.
The regime itself has acknowledged the seriousness of the situation.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, described it on May 14 as "acute, critical, and extremely tense," while Díaz-Canel admitted that the system was "particularly tense" and projected a deficit of more than 2,000 MW for the nighttime peak.
Juaristi Torres is not the only voice that has been raised. The journalist Yirmara Torres Hernández described the blackouts as a "psychological torture" in March, the singer L Kimii denounced more than 36 hours without power on May 18, and a Cuban named Lumey Guzmán published a video saying that they have no “dreams, rights, or hopes”.
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