A Cuban identified as Lesly Morales posted a video on Facebook showing how she and her family allegedly set up a camping tent and a mosquito net on the beach of Guanabo, east of Havana, to spend the night outdoors and escape the unbearable heat caused by power outages and mosquitoes.
The video posted on Facebook shows a green and gray dome-style tent on the sand, alongside a white mosquito net and personal belongings, with the text: "Escaping the blackout, we woke up on Guanabo beach."
The post accumulated over 21,800 views, 552 likes, and 65 comments, and became a reflection of the desperation experienced by thousands of Cuban families in the face of an energy crisis that shows no signs of letting up in the heat of summer.
Beyond the anecdotal, the scene reflects the severe crisis faced by Cubans, who are compelled to seek desperate solutions, sometimes as unusual as sleeping on the beach to escape power outages.
Guanabo, located 27 kilometers east of Havana in the municipality of Habana del Este, is the longest beach along the Havana Atlantic coast, featuring five kilometers of shore and over 15,000 residents.
The area already carried its own drama before this video. According to a report from Martí Noticias, in Guanabo, "people survive amid blackouts, water shortages, and garbage."
In June 2026, Havana is experiencing power outages of 20 to 24 hours daily, with some neighborhoods reporting only two hours of electricity over a span of four days.
In Matanzas, from June 14 to 17, the outages lasted for 85 consecutive hours.
The national electricity deficit exceeds 1,900 MW during peak hours, and more than 65% of the country is left without electricity during times of highest demand, according to multiple reports.
With temperatures ranging from 24°C to 31°C and high humidity, nights without ventilation or air conditioning become unbearable.
Cubans have reported on social media that they sleep with back pain due to their inability to rest, and their aspirations have been reduced to the most basic: "Sleep eight hours and drink cold water."
Another Cuban summarized the situation with a widely circulated phrase: "Here, they don't even give you explanations; it's fifty, eighty, however many hours without electricity".
Faced with the impossibility of sleeping in their homes, Cubans have resorted to improvised strategies: homemade fans with ice, fans attached to bicycles, and, in the case of Guanabo, tents and mosquito nets set up directly on the sand.
The contrast is particularly painful: while the population endures hot nights without electricity, the tourist hotels controlled by GAESA in Varadero and Cayo Coco maintain guaranteed power with their own generators.
The Cuban energy crisis has accumulated decades of structural deterioration due to lack of investment, aging thermoelectric plants, and a shortage of imported fuel, a direct consequence of 67 years of dictatorial management of the national electrical system.
A Cuban summarized it with a warning that many agree with: "You will get up feeling depressed with these blackouts."
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