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The United States Embassy in Havana issued a security alert this Monday following the total collapse of the Cuban electricity grid, recorded at 12:17 PM local time, which left the entire island without power and caused widespread failures in cellular phone service and internet across most provinces.
In the notice published on its official channel, the diplomatic mission warned that, according to the regime's own media, "the cause of the collapse and the timeline for recovery are unknown," and urged all American citizens in Cuba or planning to travel to the island to take immediate preparatory measures.
The alert underscores that the Cuban electrical grid "is becoming increasingly unstable" and that this is the seventh nationwide blackout in the last 18 months.
According to the text, "scheduled outages occur daily and unscheduled ones persist throughout the country," with increasing frequency and duration.
According to a news report, this is the third total blackout of 2026 and the eighth since the end of 2024.
The series of national collapses began on October 18, 2024, when the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant triggered the first total disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN).
The causes are structural. The Antonio Guiteras plant, the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, has accumulated decades of operation without capital maintenance since 2010.
This is compounded by the fact that Venezuela halted its oil shipments to Cuba in January 2026, which paralyzed 106 distributed generation plants and took about 890 MW offline.
At the time of the collapse this Monday, at least nine of the 16 thermoelectric units in the country were out of operation.
The day before, the Electric Union (UNE) already predicted a record deficit of up to 2,230 MW during peak hour, with only between 935 and 1,050 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW.
This meant that approximately 70% of the national territory was already experiencing scheduled blackouts before the total collapse.
After the blackout, the UNE announced the implementation of microsystems nationwide as a response measure, without providing a specific timeline for the restoration of service.
The collapse also sparked a wave of mockery and criticism on social media against the UNE, while an official from the Communist Youth attempted to blame the energy crisis on the government of Donald Trump.
The Embassy advised its citizens to keep their phones and battery banks charged, have flashlights with spare batteries on hand, store water and non-perishable food, and prepare to address medical needs without electricity, including devices that require power and medications that need refrigeration.
This is the seventh security alert issued by the U.S. diplomatic mission regarding the Cuban energy crisis so far in 2026, following the warnings on February 3, March 4, March 16, March 20, April 30, and May 15.
The longest blackout in the series, recorded in March 2026, lasted for 29 hours and 29 minutes in some areas, while in certain provinces it extended for several days.
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