Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), resorted to a blackout in Indiana this Sunday to attack Cubans living in the United States who criticize the situation on the island, in a message that reflects his usual pattern of diverting attention from the Cuban energy crisis.
In his X account, Hernández shared a screenshot of a news article reporting that around 68,000 customers in the northwest of Indiana had been without electricity for nine days following a storm that occurred on August 11.
"It's not that one wants to criticize the USA, but there are those who LIVE in #USA (without blockade or sanctions) criticizing EVERYTHING about #Cuba, and now they are silent because 'it's normal' that - due to a storm - in the richest country in the world, some have been without electricity for weeks," the official wrote.
The comparison is difficult to sustain in light of Cuba's energy reality in 2026.
The Indiana blackout was caused by a derecho—a straight-line windstorm—with gusts of up to 99 mph in Gary, an extreme and localized weather event. The electric company NIPSCO, which reported nearly 374,500 customers without service at the peak of the outage, estimated full restoration by August 25.
Cuba, on the other hand, is experiencing a structural electrical crisis that is not dependent on any storm.
The National Electric System experienced at least six total collapses between January and August of this year, the latest occurring on August 3rd. The generation deficit exceeded 2,411 MW on August 5th, leaving over 65% of the population without electricity during peak hours. The causes are structural: outdated plants, chronic fuel shortages, and lack of maintenance.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted in May that Cuba “has no fuel or diesel to generate electricity”, a confession that dismantles any attempt to equate both situations.
Far from acknowledging that reality, Hernández has turned his social media into a propaganda platform throughout 2026.
In March, when a massive blackout struck the island, he reacted with the message “Down with the blockade! No one will bring this people to its knees!”. In February, he used a photo of an Argentine baby in an incubator to illustrate the supposed impact of the embargo on Cuba, an image that was denounced as false. In April, he published “Beautiful Havana” while the island was experiencing outages of more than twenty hours daily. In May, he ironically asked Washington for a oil ship for Cuba amid the energy crisis.
Hernández, one of the so-called "Cuban Five" —intelligence agents convicted in the United States for espionage and released in 2014— repeats the same formula with each new controversy: highlighting the struggles of others to silence criticism of a regime that has spent decades failing to resolve the electrical issues faced by its own citizens.
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