Related videos:
The Guantánamo Electric Company announced this Friday that the line worker crews from Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo are working "tirelessly" on the 110 kV lines that supply the province, and that in the early hours of the afternoon, technical tests and the synchronization to the National Electric System are expected to commence in order to begin restoring the electricity service.
The total blackout in the province originated on Thursday, June 11, around 5:20 p.m., when the "trip" —automatic disconnection due to a fault— of the 110 kV line connecting Santiago de Cuba with Guantánamo occurred, leaving the entire province without electricity. At the time of the official announcement, the company did not publicly explain what caused the failure.
By the time the announcement was made, several residents had been without electricity for over 24 hours. A neighbor from Reparto Obrero reported a continuous blackout of 29 hours, while another person noted that the line 5385 San Luis–Palma Soriano, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, had accumulated 33 hours without power.
The company promised that the recovery would be gradual: "prioritizing the circuits with the longest duration of impact and the vital centers, as the System allows."
The frustration of the people from Guantanamo overflowed in the comments on the post.
"They have been fixing that for over 24 hours, they don't say what happened, and on top of that, there is no emergency plan B; it's easier for them to leave us without power for days," wrote an internet user.
Another one questioned, "Is there no oil for emergencies to power the distributed energy, and are the photovoltaic parks also not functioning?"
The outrage also focused on the regime's priorities. "The tranquility and discipline of the blackouts will first be for the leaders and then for the common people," joked a user.
Another pointed out the loss of food: "The little that can be bought to eat comes with high prices, and nobody cares that it goes to waste."
Guantánamo is structurally vulnerable because it relies on a single high-voltage line to connect to the National Electric System (SEN) through Santiago de Cuba, making any failure in that line result in a total blackout across the province.
Only Baracoa and Maisí maintained electric service during the outage, via Moa.
Structural deterioration worsens the situation. The Electric Union acknowledged on June 7 that there are eight damaged transformers in the province —three in Baracoa, two in Maisí, two in El Salvador, and one in Manuel Tames— with no available equipment for repairs.
The blackout occurs at the worst moment of the Cuban electricity crisis of 2026. This Friday, the national electric deficit was 1,720 MW, with an estimated demand of 3,000 MW against only 1,310 MW available, and 106 distributed generation plants out of service due to lack of fuel.
On Thursday night, the electricity deficit exceeded 2,000 MW, and the year's record was set on May 14, when it reached 2,174 MW. Since June 3, protests and pot-banging have been reported in Havana and Santiago de Cuba in response to the prolonged power and water outages.
Filed under: