The Popular Municipal Court of Contramaestre held a trial with a "deterrent" character for the theft of dielectric oil at an electrical substation in the Bungo La Venta area, an incident that caused a service disruption for over 2,000 people for 48 hours.
According to the information provided by the telecenter TurquinoTeve this Tuesday, the defendant was arrested by law enforcement agents while transporting the stolen substance. He was sentenced to 12 years of deprivation of liberty.
In the operation, the date of which was not specified, 120 liters of dielectric oil were seized, along with hand tools allegedly used to commit the act.
The source indicates that this electrical component is an imported product, as it is not produced in Cuba.
The power outage had direct consequences on the electricity supply: according to the information released, more than 2,000 people from Bungo La Venta and other nearby areas were affected for 48 hours.
After assessing those impacts, described in the information as aggravating factors, as well as the results of previous investigations, the People's Municipal Court of Contramaestre imposed a sentence of 12 years of deprivation of liberty on the accused.
In the case identified as cause no. 8/2026, the act was classified as sabotage of the national electric power system, a criminal offense that significantly increases the penalties compared to common theft.
The Provincial Prosecutor's Office emphasized in its publication that "during the processing of the case and the holding of the oral trial, procedural guarantees and respect for the due process enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba and in the Criminal Procedure Law were upheld."
The legal framework that underpins these sentences is the Opinion 475/2025 from the People’s Supreme Tribunal, issued in May 2025, which directs the courts to classify as sabotage—under Article 125 of the Penal Code—any theft or damage to components of the National Electroenergy System.
The penalties foreseen range from 7 to 15 years for the basic type, and can escalate to 10 to 30 years, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty in aggravated cases.
Dielectric oil serves to provide insulation and cooling in transformers; its removal renders the equipment useless and can lead to power outages lasting days or weeks.
In the Cuban black market, stolen products are resold as lubricant or substitute fuel for agricultural machinery, at prices ranging from 500 to over 1,000 Cuban pesos per liter.
The case of Contramaestre is just one more in a growing list of similar incidents documented on the island. Since May 2026, there have been similar exemplary trials in Artemisa, where 12 years were proposed for 70 liters stolen; in Isla de la Juventud, with an eight-year sentence for 60 liters; and in Ciego de Ávila, with sentences of 7 to 12 years for electrical sabotage.
Contramaestre has a history of incidents related to this type of crime: in December 2024, a local resident was already arrested for selling oil stolen from transformers in the same municipality.
The magnitude of the problem was laid bare before the National Assembly on July 29, 2026, when the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that the theft of transformer oil occurs "daily" and that the amount stolen is "almost equivalent" to what Cuba produces during the same period.
The official also acknowledged that there are communities on the island that have been without electricity for up to 105 days due to damage to transformers that are difficult to replace.
Despite the campaign of exemplary trials, the problem persists: on August 17, new transformer oil thefts were reported in Santiago de Cuba, indicating that severe sentences have not succeeded in halting a practice driven by economic desperation and the structural scarcity faced by the island.
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