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The Havana Electric Company recorded a cascade of circuit blows and outages that left residents without electricity in nearly all municipalities of the capital, according to the this Sunday morning.
The interruptions affected Playa, Lisa, Guanabacoa, Arroyo Naranjo, 10 de Octubre, Plaza de la Revolución, Centro Habana, Habana del Este, Boyeros, and Cotorro, among other municipalities, with causes ranging from damaged transformers to overloads at substations and broken primary lines.
One of the hardest hits was suffered by the 10th of October municipality, where the Naranjito Substation tripped due to overload, cutting off the supply in Víbora, Santos Suárez, Sevillano, Mónaco, Vista Alegre, and San Mariano, among other areas.
In Centro Habana and Plaza de la Revolución, a circuit outage shut down the area between Monte and Malecón, and between Prado and Galiano, as well as sections of Zapata, 19 de Mayo, and Almendares.
Habana del Este experienced several power outages throughout the day: first, Ampliación de Marbella, Guanabo, Bello Monte, and Villa del Mar lost power; later, a new outage affected areas 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, and Micro X, in addition to a malfunction due to a damaged transformer in Cojímar.
In Boyeros, at least two distinct gunfire incidents were reported, affecting the neighborhoods of Trigal, Parajón, García, El Cuervo, El Trébol, 1ro de Mayo, La CETEL, Porvenir, and Adelaida.
This situation arises just two days after the fourth total blackout of the National Electric System in 2026, which occurred on Friday, July 10, when a failure in the 220 kV line between Santa Clara and Sancti Spíritus triggered a cascading disconnection that left nearly 10 million people without electricity in just 35 minutes.
Although the Electric Union announced at 6:30 this Sunday that the system was interconnected throughout the Cuban territory, this technical reconnection does not equate to a stable supply: on Saturday the 11th, only 12.6% of the customers in Havana had electricity by noon, and during the early hours of that same day the western microsystem collapsed again, forcing a restart of the recovery protocol from scratch.
Behind the avalanche of breakdowns lies a structural crisis spanning decades: Cuba's thermoelectric plants are between 40 and 60 years old without comprehensive maintenance, the country has gone over three months without regular shipments of oil, and Cuba has only three transformer repair workshops—in Havana, Villa Clara, and Manzanillo—completely overwhelmed and lacking available spare parts.
On July 8, the largest energy deficit in the history of Cuba was recorded: 2,341 MW, with only 935 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW and 73% of the population affected simultaneously.
Meanwhile, public outrage is growing. On Saturday, the 11th, in Guanabacoa, a strong pot-banging protest with chants of "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!" shook the neighborhood of La Hata after more than 33 consecutive hours without electricity, just before the fifth anniversary of the 11J protests of 2021.
In June 2026, a record historical total of 107 street protests was recorded in Cuba, nearly double the previous maximum, indicating that the accumulated frustration over blackouts and shortages has surpassed all thresholds of tolerance.
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