Two electric poles collapsed this Tuesday around noon in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, while Cuba is experiencing its third widespread blackout of the year. According to the report from Cubanet Noticias, the direct cause was the decayed state of the base of one of the poles, a direct result of years without maintenance.
The incident occurs at the worst possible moment: the National Electric Power System (SEN) collapsed on Monday at 12:37 PM after the shutdown of Unit No. 6 at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey, leaving more than 9.6 million people without electricity.
That widespread blackout —the eighth since late 2024— recorded a record electricity deficit of between 2,200 and 2,230 MW, with only 1,000 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The collapse of the poles in Lawton illustrates that the Cuban energy crisis goes far beyond the generation deficit: the distribution network has accumulated decades of neglect, with deteriorated infrastructure that buckles under any additional stress.
At the time of the collapse on Monday, 106 distributed generation plants —equivalent to 890 MW— were inactive due to a lack of fuel, in a country that has gone over three months without regular oil supplies.
This Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the collapse, the government reported a partial recovery of the service from Mariel to Sancti Spíritus, benefiting approximately 262,369 customers in Havana, while the rest of the country remained in the dark.
Lawton has a recent history of unrest due to power outages. In March 2026, neighborhood residents burned trash and blocked streets after 36 consecutive hours without electricity, in one of the most visible protests in the capital that month.
The neighborhood has also experienced water cut-offs related to electrical failures in the Palatino pump, a key pumping facility for several municipalities in Havana.
The telecommunications network did not escape the collapse either: ETECSA confirmed that 47.5% of the radio bases and 56.5% of the telecommunications cabinets were out of service during the blackout, worsening the isolation of the population.
Experts estimate that Cuba would need approximately 10 billion dollars to overcome the structural energy crisis, a figure that is unattainable for a regime that has not even been able to maintain the poles of its distribution network.
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