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The Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz blamed the U.S. embargo this Friday for the two disconnections of the National Electric System (SEN) recorded in a week, and rhetorically asked if Cuba was not facing "a genocide."
"Today, the people raised their voice for Cuba once again. And just when the world has overwhelmingly condemned the blockade and the energy siege against our country, we have experienced two disconnections from the SEN. Are we not facing genocide?", wrote Marrero on his profile on the social network X.
In another tweet he noted that it has been "another very tough week under the impact of the energy blockade: two disconnections from the National Electric System, almost no fuel to power the plants, and several units out of service. The work of the electricians is titanic. Amid the challenges, our recognition."
The message arrived hours after the SEN collapsed for the fourth time this year, at 4:30 PM this Friday, as confirmed by the Electric Union.
The technical cause was a failure in the 220 kV line between Santa Clara and Sancti Spíritus, which occurred at 3:55 PM and triggered the total collapse of the system in just 35 minutes.
The regime linked the blackout to the extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly held on July 7, where 136 countries voted in favor of discussing the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Marrero used the hashtag #CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza, the central slogan of the diplomatic campaign that the Cuban government has promoted in recent weeks alongside the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, also spoke on X and acknowledged the seriousness of the situation.
The official narrative omits the structural causes of the crisis: Cuban thermoelectric plants are between 40 and 60 years old without comprehensive maintenance, and the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant has gone offline 17 times so far in 2026 without receiving any major maintenance since 2010.
The system operated this Friday with a capacity of only 935 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW, with a projected deficit exceeding 2,100 MW.
In addition, 106 distributed generation plants remained idle due to a lack of fuel, representing an additional 890 MW out of service.
The largest energy deficit in the history of the country was recorded just two days earlier, on July 8, when a deficit of 2,341 MW was reached, affecting 73% of the population simultaneously.
In some areas of Matanzas, power outages have lasted up to 87 consecutive hours, while in Havana the average is 15 hours daily without electricity.
The blackout occurred on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the protests on July 11, 2021, the largest social uprising in Cuba since 1959, sparked in part by the same blackouts and shortages that persist today, triggering a wave of ironic comments on social media.
The reaction of Cubans to the new fall of the SEN included messages such as: "Remember that tomorrow is July 11. The 10th is gone and won't return until the 12th."
The Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on January 29 imposed secondary sanctions on countries exporting fuel to Cuba, which severed supplies from Venezuela and Mexico, exacerbating a long-standing crisis.
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