The Cuban regime has decided to address the theft of dielectric oil from electrical transformers not as a common theft, but as sabotage, with penalties ranging from seven to 30 years in prison and potentially leading to life imprisonment or even the death penalty in aggravated cases, according to warns the state-run newspaper Girón in an editorial published this Wednesday.
The legal framework that supports this qualification is the Opinion 475/2025 from the Supreme People’s Court, issued in May 2025, which instructed the courts to apply Article 125 of the Cuban Penal Code to those who damage or remove elements of critical infrastructures, including the National Electric System.
The problem has reached an alarming scale. In the province of Matanzas alone, more than 90 transformers have been affected by this type of theft.
In San Luis, Santiago de Cuba, the extraction of 300 liters of oil from a four megavolt-ampere transformer left approximately 17,000 people without electricity.
In the community of Julia, in Bayamo, more than five thousand customers lost their supply, resulting in an economic impact of 27,360 pesos.
This Wednesday, authorities reported that a man was arrested in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, accused of stealing dielectric oil from an electrical substation.
Law enforcement recovered 30 liters of the fluid; the suspect spilled another 20 liters upon noticing the police presence to prevent them from being confiscated.
In Mayabeque, authorities dismantled a gang of six individuals operating in Güines and Melena del Sur with a high level of organization: they climbed poles without ladders, pried open covers with bars or machetes, extracted oil using hoses, and transported it in plastic tanks on bicycles.
In Holguín, more than 20,000 people were left without electricity after the theft of oil from a transformer.
The motivation behind these thefts is economic: the dielectric oil is sold on the informal market as a substitute for fuel for tractors and trucks at prices exceeding 600 pesos per liter.
The outcome, however, is disproportionately destructive. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, stated before the National Assembly at the end of July that the volume of stolen oil was "almost similar" to that produced during the same period, and that some communities had been without electricity for as long as 105 days due to damage to transformers that could not be quickly replaced.
The courts have already begun to impose severe sentences. In May, a worker from the Electric Company of Isla de la Juventud was sentenced to eight years in prison for appropriating 60 liters of oil.
In Ciego de Ávila, several defendants received sentences ranging from seven to 12 years for similar offenses. In Artemisa, the Prosecutor's Office requested a 12-year prison sentence for a man who stole 70 liters.
The authorities in Matanzas have activated Defense Zones to protect the transformers and announced that those responsible will face exemplary trials.
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