The U.S. State Department stated that the Cuban regime could resolve the electricity crisis immediately if it relinquished power.
The statements were made public this Monday on "The Will Cain Show" on Fox News and are part of an interview with Joshua Treviño, Senior Director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative. The excerpt was published on the X account of the Department of State.
"The lights could be turned on tomorrow if they chose to relinquish their hold on power. And that is what I believe all Americans, and certainly President and Secretary Marco Rubio, hope they will do," Treviño stated.
He directly linked the situation in Cuba to the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the end of chavismo. "Many of the combat troops that American forces faced on January 3 in Caracas were Cuban. The Cuban dictatorship was the main sponsor of Maduro's dictatorship," he stated.
In response to the interviewer's question about how much longer he believes they can hold out in Cuba, the political analyst's answer was straightforward.
It is impossible to say. The tragic part is that there is no limit to the amount of suffering that the Cuban communist regime is willing to inflict on its own people.
Treviño's statement came at a critical moment regarding the blackouts in Cuba. The collapse on Sunday was the sixth national blackout of the year. The reconnection process began that same night, but the outages continued on Monday morning.
In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed out that the blackouts are the result of decades of neglect and mismanagement, and are not related to Washington's policies.
In July, he added that the "great dilemma" for the regime is that it fears losing control if the economy improves too much.
The Cuban electricity crisis of 2026 is the most severe in decades. In addition to issues with fuel supply, the system relies on thermoelectric plants with equipment that has never been modernized.
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