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Three individuals attempted to assault the Las Nereidas Photovoltaic Park, located on the road from Ciro Redondo to Morón, Ciego de Ávila, and ended up in a stone-throwing confrontation with the facility's guards, according to the state-run newspaper Invasor.
After midnight on Sunday, June 21, the security operator Kevin Ley Pérez López and the shift supervisor Irán González detected movement inside the enclosure during their routine patrol of the southwest perimeter.
As they approached and called out to them, the intruders—two already within the perimeter and a third positioned outside—responded by throwing stones at the workers.
Far from retreating, the guardians responded in kind. Within a few minutes, the operator-guardian Eliersy Verao Villegas joined the confrontation.
After some time, the three individuals fled through the same hole they had opened in the welded wire mesh.
The subsequent review of the installation confirmed that there was no damage to the photovoltaic modules, the technological equipment, or the lighting system. Fortunately, no security personnel were injured, despite the fact that the stones were thrown with clear intent to harm them.
What they found during the perimeter reconnaissance revealed that the assault was not improvised: X-shaped marks indicated points far from the guard posts—apparently vulnerable areas of the fence. There was also evidence of the passage of at least two animal-drawn vehicles and piles of stones deliberately stacked next to the enclosure.
"Everything points to a planned action, not a spontaneous attempt," the report notes.
This was the second documented attempt against Las Nereidas.
The first incident occurred in the early hours of May 20, when two intruders were caught attempting to dismantle panels in the southwest area and also fled without taking anything.
After that incident, the facility applied cold welding to secure the panels to their frames, coordinated nighttime patrols with the police, and reinforced the perimeter fencing. These measures were not enough to deter a second attack.
The article points out that the vegetation in the adjacent pastures provides natural cover for intruders and that the distances between surveillance positions are considerably extensive. None of these conditions were addressed between the first and second attempts.
What is most concerning is another alarming sign: some guards have expressed that, if this level of aggression continues, they may be forced to leave their posts for fear of suffering physical harm.
The official journalist himself warns that "if fear drives workers from their positions, the criminals will have achieved, without stealing anything, what they could not accomplish by breaking in."
The attacks on Las Nereidas are part of a national wave of thefts targeting solar infrastructures.
In May, four individuals attacked and tied up the custodian of a pumping station in Holguín to steal 32 solar panels.
In Guanabacoa, a shift supervisor was arrested for stealing more than 40 meters of cable from his own park. In Granma, over 50 panels disappeared from Parque Juan Pérez II.
Ciego de Ávila has nine solar parks and 108 MW of installed capacity, compared to a daily demand of about 130 MW. Power outages in the province exceed 20 hours a day, making each panel a highly valued commodity in the informal market and a coveted target for thieves.
The regime responded to the escalation with Ruling 475 from the Supreme People’s Tribunal, which classifies the theft or damage of solar panels as sabotage, carrying penalties ranging from seven to thirty years, life imprisonment, or the death penalty in aggravated cases.
In March, a court in the province itself sentenced two men to nine and seven years in prison for stealing around 50,000 screws intended for solar park structures. Despite this, the thefts continue.
The text from Invasor concludes with a warning that summarizes the situation: "Waiting for the third attempt would be a luxury that the electrical system cannot afford."
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