The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismantled the narrative of the Cuban regime that blames the Trump administration for the electrical crisis on the Island, stating in an interview with Brian Kilmeade, political commentator of Fox News, that the blackouts are not new and do not originate from Washington.
"They have been suffering from blackouts for the past five to seven years because the system is not working, it yields no results. They have equipment from the 1940s and 1950s that has not been upgraded or invested in at all because their economic model is failing," Rubio stated emphatically.
Rubio also explained the most recent structural cause of the energy collapse: the interruption of subsidized Venezuelan oil that Nicolás Maduro's regime was providing to Cuba for free.
"The number one thing that has happened here is that they are no longer stealing oil from Venezuela and receiving it for free," said the Secretary of State.
The official recalled that Cuba resold most of that oil for cash instead of using it to benefit its population. This flow was interrupted following Maduro's capture on January 3, leaving the Island with barely any reserves.
"Cuba was taking that oil, but it wasn't using it to benefit the Cuban people; it sold most of it for cash, and that money ended up in their pockets. That no longer happens," he emphasized.
The Cuban-born politician once again described Cuba as a "failed state" and mentioned the only solution he sees as possible: "The only solution and response for Cuba is to embark on an irreversible path towards becoming a normal and functional state that eventually is also democratic."
The statements directly contradict what the regime has been repeating for months. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero attributed a national blackout in July to the embargo, and in August Miguel Díaz-Canel called the embargo "genocide" and pointed to Trump as the direct responsible for the crisis.
But the facts contradict that narrative. Chronic blackouts began to worsen since 2019. In the summer of 2022, the crisis became systemic, with cascading failures attributed to thermal power plants that have been in operation for over 30 years and have deferred maintenance.
The most visible blow occurred on October 18, 2024 -during the Biden administration, months before Trump's return to the White House- when the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest in the country, went offline and left the entire island without electricity.
In 2026, Cuba has experienced seven total collapses of the National Electroenergetic System, including one in March that lasted nearly 30 hours, with generation deficits exceeding 2,000 MW during peak hours. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted in May that Cuba was "out of fuel".
Rubio is not unfamiliar with this debate. In March, he attributed the blackouts to “decades of neglect, mismanagement, and outdated infrastructure”, and months later refuted the argument of a “petroleum blockade”.
Filed under: