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A Cuban mother identified as Dayany Sol Lopez posted an open letter on Facebook addressed to the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, accompanied by a photo of her baby sleeping on a cot (similar to those used in daycare centers) apparently in the patio or entrance of her home, unable to rest in their crib due to the unbearable heat after 48 hours without electricity.
"President, tell me how I explain to my baby that their fan is out of charge because we have been enduring 48 hours reporting a malfunction and no one, well, the answer is that the complaint has already been filed and no one is doing anything," the woman wrote.
"How do I tell him that he can't sleep in his crib because the heat won't let him sleep and that he has to sleep by the door of the house to see if some air comes in," he continued in his post.
The appeal culminates with a phrase that directly challenges the official rhetoric: “Mr. President, my son doesn’t know what it means to resist, and my son doesn’t understand the hellish country he lives in.”
The publication arrives at the worst moment of the Cuban electricity crisis in decades. On July 8, a historic deficit of 2,341 MW was recorded, with a mere availability of 1,000 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The National Electric System has completely collapsed seven times in 18 months, with three nationwide blackouts occurring just in 2026.
Provinces like Matanzas have experienced up to 87 consecutive hours without electricity, Granma was completely disconnected on July 4th, and Havana is facing outages ranging from 20 to 30 hours daily.
The CTE Antonio Guiteras, the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, went offline on July 3 in its 17th disconnection of the year.
The case of Dayany Sol Lopez is not an isolated one. Since May 2026, there has been a surge of complaints from Cuban mothers about the suffering of infants and children due to extreme heat without ventilation.
Subdraine Portales wrote on June 3rd “I am a mother and I can’t take it anymore”, reporting insect bites on her baby.
Sinaí Arencibia reported that his daughter had gone three nights without sleep due to the heat. A nine-month-old baby suffered burns while his family endured the blackouts.
The contrast with the official discourse is devastating. Díaz-Canel stated on July 3 in an interview with the Puerto Rican weekly CLARIDAD: "I am convinced that we will overcome this, that we will move forward, that we will prevail, and that we will not give up. We will not give up."
At the closing of the third extraordinary session of Parliament, the leader had called on the people to "resist" the blackouts, describing them as a "barbaric punishment."
It is precisely that word —resist— that Dayany Sol Lopez responds with unflinching honesty: her baby boy does not know what it means, and she cannot find a way to explain it to him.
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