A small ferris wheel filled with children had to be pushed by several adults during the popular festivities in Cienfuegos, after authorities reportedly banned self-employed workers from connecting their amusement rides to the electrical grid, according to a social media complaint.
The videos, shared on Facebook by Darián Rodríguez Abreu, captured a scene that encapsulates the deterioration facing the province: while official celebrations for the centenary of Fidel Castro were taking place, residents endured blackouts that, according to reports, lasted between 50 and 60 consecutive hours.
In one of the videos, several people can be seen manually turning a small carousel while the children remain in their seats. Other footage shows workers climbing onto the metal framework of another attraction, trying to keep it operational.
"The government is making existence increasingly difficult by prohibiting self-employed workers from connecting their devices to the power supply so that children at least have some form of entertainment, which means they have to be operated manually," Rodríguez Abreu denounced.
Carnivals while neighbors accumulated dozens of hours without electricity
The popular festivities took place from August 14 to 16, during one of the most critical moments of the electricity crisis in the country.
During those days, the province reported a generation capacity shortfall of 89 MW, while residents complained of power outages lasting between 50 and 60 hours.
The energy situation was no better in the rest of the country. On August 15, the actual maximum impact reached 2,281 MW, a figure that reflects the National Electric System's inability to meet a substantial portion of the demand.
Cuba has also suffered six total collapses of the electrical system so far in 2026, amidst constant malfunctions in thermal power plants, a lack of fuel, and years of infrastructure deterioration.
For Rodríguez Abreu, the problem goes beyond a ferris wheel operating solely on manual labor; it is the normalization of conditions that would have been unthinkable years ago.
"I believe that living this way has become so normalized that for those inside Cuba, it may even seem 'normal.' But believe me, in the real world, this is not normal," he concluded.
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