Cuban authorities detected and thwarted an attempt to steal dielectric oil on Friday at the Cuban Bronze substation, located in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa, as reported by the Electric Company of Havana on its Facebook profile.
The Electric Company of Havana (EELH) confirmed that the transformer was not damaged and that those responsible for the attempt were captured by security forces.
The entity described the event as a demonstration of "the effectiveness of the organizational and technical measures adopted by the Electric Company of Havana in conjunction with the enforcement bodies."
The positive result comes just ten days after the EELH announced the installation of chemical traps at its substations, an invisible substance detectable by ultraviolet light designed to identify those who steal the liquid. The case in Guanabacoa would be the first publicly known outcome of these measures in Havana.
The theft of dielectric oil has become one of the main threats to the Cuban electrical system. This product serves as a coolant and insulator in transformers; its removal leads to overheating, short circuits, and irreversible damage to the equipment.
On the black market, it is resold as a substitute for fuel for tractors and agricultural machinery at prices ranging from 500 to over 1,000 Cuban pesos per liter.
The magnitude of the problem was revealed in July 2026, when the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged before the National Assembly that theft occurs "daily" and that "the amount of oil that has been stolen from us is almost similar to what we are producing in the same period."
Between 2025 and the first half of 2026, the authorities opened more than 460 criminal investigations for offenses against the National Electric System, with over 300 of them relating to the theft of dielectric oil, reported across the 15 provinces and 97 municipalities of the country.
The courts have responded with severe sentences. In early October, seven individuals received sentences ranging from 12 to 15 years in prison for stealing 1,248 liters of oil at the Moa Nueva substation in Holguín, an incident that destroyed the transformer and left more than 6,000 homes without electricity.
On that same date, four men were sentenced to between 15 and 20 years for stealing oil from the Dairy Complex of Havana, resulting in losses exceeding 10 million pesos and disrupting the production of regulated staple foods.
Despite the punitive escalation, thefts continue unabated. In Holguín, the distribution director of the provincial electrical company, Fabián Vega Genicio, warned that by the end of October, there were 65 incidents affecting the electrical system, compared to 42 during the same period in 2025, with 36 of those cases related to the theft of dielectric oil, compared to just four in the same period the previous year.
The Cuban Penal Code, following the Opinion 475/2025 of the Supreme People's Court, allows these thefts to be classified as sabotage, with penalties ranging from seven years to life imprisonment or the death penalty in aggravated cases.
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