A video published by journalist Mario J. Pentón shows Cubans sleeping on mattresses in the middle of the street, in front of the iconic staircase of the Universidad de La Habana, in an image that encapsulates the exhaustion of a population caught between endless blackouts and stifling heat.
The reel shared on Facebook captures the testimony of one of the affected individuals, whose words encapsulate the despair of millions: "Nothing, because this can't go on anymore. I've already gotten used to living there without electricity. What I need is to leave the country. I don’t need anything else."
The scene takes place days after another collapse of the national electrical system recorded on August 2, the latest in a series of failures that have made blackouts the norm during the Cuban summer. Following that blackout, hundreds of locals slept on the Malecón to take advantage of the sea breeze.
The phenomenon is not new, but it has intensified with each passing week. In some circuits of Havana, the outages have reached 20 to 24 hours daily during the summer, forcing families to seek any alternative to survive the heat and humidity. In July, children were sleeping in the doorways of Havana with mattresses brought to the street, and a mother recounted that she had been sleeping on the rooftop of her building for a week.
The choice of location adds a symbolic weight that is hard to ignore. The university steps, one of the most iconic spaces in the country, had already been the scene of social tension this past March, when students held a sit-in protest against power outages and their effects on education. The fact that this same space is now being turned into an improvised dormitory illustrates just how far the crisis has progressed.
The conditions are further exacerbated by other factors. At the end of July, residents of several neighborhoods in Havana reported a infestation of bedbugs spreading across Havana, which has led many to discard and burn mattresses on the streets, further complicating the rest of those who have no choice but to sleep outdoors.
The contrast with the regime's reserves is striking. In April, Pentón published leaked images of a government warehouse attributed to GAESA filled with mattresses and personal hygiene products, while the population drags their own to the sidewalks just to be able to rest.
The Cuban energy crisis, resulting from decades of disinvestment and mismanagement of the electrical system by the regime, has no solution in sight. In the meantime, the steps of the University of Havana—an historical symbol for generations of Cubans—have become the most eloquent portrait of collapse: an open-air dormitory where the only way out that many see is emigration.
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