By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA, March 21 (Reuters) – Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Saturday for the second time in a week amid the U.S.-imposed oil blockade, officials announced, as the communist government struggles to keep the lights on for its 10 million people with decrepit infrastructure.
“At 18:32 (2232 GMT), a total disconnection of the National Electric Power System occurred. We will continue to provide updates,” the state utility Union Electrica said on social media.
This incident marks the third major power outage this month, as a majority of the system went down on March 4 when a major thermoelectric generating plant failed. The power grid also went completely offline on Monday for unexplained reasons.
Cuba has experienced a series of major or total outages in recent years, but two total failures in the space of a week is exceptional.
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed an oil blockade on the Caribbean island after Washington deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, removing him from the country to face drug-trafficking charges in an early morning raid. Venezuela had been Cuba’s most important benefactor, providing oil to its close ally on favorable terms.
Since then, Trump has cut off Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened other countries with punitive tariffs if they sell oil to Cuba.
Mexico, the most important oil supplier to Cuba along with Venezuela, has halted its oil shipments, while also providing humanitarian aid.
With global oil prices surging due to the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the U.S. has temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil products, but included an exemption that specifically excludes transactions involving Cuba in addition to North Korea and Crimea.
Cuba has long blamed the U.S. trade embargo for economic failures including its failing power grid, while Washington in turn has attributed the failures to Cuba’s Soviet-style command economy.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Havana and Sarah Kinosian in Mexico City; Editing by Nia Williams and Paul Simao)
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