In January 2003, Abel Prieto, then Minister of Culture of the Cuban regime, promised on the cameras of Radio Nederland in Porto Alegre, Brazil, that the blackouts that characterized the Special Period would never return to Cuba. More than two decades later, that promise lies buried under the worst energy crisis in the island's recent history.
The statement was made during the Third Social Forum, an international leftist event to which the regime sent a delegation of around 200 people.
Prieto was unequivocal: "For instance, the generation of electricity with national oil is guaranteed, a very specific effort that has been made recently. A technological reform, a technological renewal has been implemented in the thermoelectric plants to use Cuban oil to generate electricity for the national grid."
And he ended with a phrase that today feels devastating: "Those blackouts that darkened us spiritually and literally in the 90s will not return."
He also stated, "I don't believe we will ever return to the harsh moments of that tough period in '93, '94."
The reality of 2024 and 2025 contradicted each of those words with concrete data.
In August 2024, Cuba ended the month with a record power generation deficit of 1,305 MW. In September, that deficit exceeded 1,500 MW, with outages lasting more than 12 hours a day in many areas of the country.
On October 18, 2024, the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant caused the total disconnection of the National Electric System, leaving the entire island without electricity.
In November of the same year, Hurricane Rafael caused a second total disconnection of the system, with a maximum deficit of 1,768 MW recorded on November 6.
The situation did not improve in 2025 or 2026. The Cuban government itself acknowledged that 2025 was the year of "the greatest fuel shortage" in the recent history of the electrical system.
On March 16, 2026, Cuba experienced a new total disconnection of the national electric system, the sixth in a year and a half, with official estimates indicating that around 61% of the country faced simultaneous outages. In some areas, the outages extended beyond 24 consecutive hours.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, eventually admitted what Prieto had promised would never happen: "We are not going to eliminate power outages" and "2026 will be a tough year."
The fragility of the system was once again laid bare on June 5. The Electric Union reported the disconnection of unit 8 of the Máximo Gómez thermoelectric plant in Mariel from the National Electricity System for reasons that were not even officially explained, and the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant due to a new leak in the boiler. In the case of Guiteras, the country's most important plant, this marked its thirteenth disconnection from the system in 2026, occurring less than 24 hours after it had been reconnected, reflecting the deterioration and instability that currently characterize electricity generation in Cuba.
Meanwhile, Prieto —now president of Casa de las Américas— continued to align with the official discourse. In February 2026, he participated in the presentation of the Selected Works of Raúl Castro, praising him as a "guide." In May, he posted on X that "Cuba is strong", without making any reference to his promise from 2003.
Cuba's electrical infrastructure was never consistently modernized, as Prieto announced that January in Brazil. The system that was supposed to ensure energy repeatedly collapsed, subjecting Cubans to more severe blackouts than those during the Special Period, which the official vowed would not return.
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