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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Cuba's deepening crisis: blackouts, tourism crash, exodus. Will Cubans rise up?
Amid President Trump's threats to start a global trade war, invade Greenland, seize control of the Panama Canal and annex Canada, this story has gone virtually unnoticed: Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in decades — maybe since the 1959 revolution. Before we get into whether we're likely to see any massive street protests like the ones that shook the island in 2021, let's look at the disastrous situation Cubans are facing today. Recent months have seen Cuba virtually paralyzed by blackouts. By the regime's own admission, power outages averaged 18 hours a day in May. 'We are going through a critical situation,' Cuba's dictator, Miguel Diaz-Canel, conceded in his May 29 podcast. The Cuban economy 'is hurting, diminished, almost paralyzed,' he added, according to the EFE news agency. This rare admission confirmed what Cubans have been saying for years — especially since blackouts started worsening late last year. The regime blames everything, as usual, on the U.S. trade embargo, claiming Washington's sanctions block Cuba from earning the hard currency it needs to buy foreign oil. But experts dismiss this as a tired excuse because Cuba can trade with every country except the U.S. The real culprits: decades of neglected electricity infrastructure, lack of investments in alternative energies and dwindling oil shipments from Venezuela and Russia. 'There's an average of 18-hour-a-day blackouts,' said Alfredo Lopez, head of Cuba's state-run Electric Union company, in the same May 29 podcast. He blamed 66% of the power outages on fuel shortages. Tourism, a major source of the island's income, is collapsing. Many Canadian, European and Latin American tourists are choosing other Caribbean destinations. Who wants to vacation where the lights go out at night? According to the latest figures from Cuba's National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), foreign tourism plunged nearly 30% in the first three months of this year. This comes on top of a previous decline in the number of foreign visitors. Last year, foreign arrivals had already fallen to 2.2 million, down from 4.7 million in 2018. The pandemic, the 2021 anti-government protests and now the blackouts are crippling Cuba's once thriving tourism sector. Sugar production, once one of Cuba's economic pillars, is in crisis: Cuba is now importing sugar. The Reuters news agency reports that the state-run Azcuba sugar company may produce just 165,000 tons this year, down from 8 million in the 1980s. Rum, a top export, is threatened by sugar and alcohol shortages. 'Lack of sugar throws Cuba's rum industry into crisis,' read a May 30 headline in the British daily The Guardian. In recent conversations with foreign diplomats and Cubans living on the island, I asked them whether they expect new protests this summer. Most anti-government demonstrations in recent years happened in summer, when people are most angry over the power outages that keep them from using their fans or — if they are lucky — air conditioners. Most of the people I talked to said they would not bet on new mass protests, in part because of the regime's brutal repression after the 2021 street demonstrations. At least 700 peaceful protesters were arrested, and many got up to 30-year prison sentences. But the bigger obstacle to a new eruption of anti-government rallies may be that Cuba has become an island of old people, several Cuba residents told me. Mass emigration since 2021 has drained the island of young people — the ones most likely to protest. Indeed, official data show that more than 1 million Cubans — 10% of the population — have left since 2020. Most were young. Because of emigration and low birth rates, Cuba now has Latin America's oldest population, Cuban economist Pedro Monreal wrote on his X social media account recently. To be sure, the latest mass exodus of Cubans has given the regime a reprieve by removing potential protesters. But if the current crisis continues, I wonder whether it will be enough to prevent a new wave of social unrest. Many economists agree that the current economic situation is worse than the 1990s 'special period' that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. And President Trump's anti-immigration crusade, including his June 4 partial travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Cuba, will close Cuba's emigration escape valve. To make things worse for Cuba's dictatorship, Diaz-Canel is a colorless bureaucrat with zero charisma, and the country's ultimate behind-the-scenes-ruler, Raúl Castro, is 93. It's unclear for how long Cuba's ruling elite will hold together once Castro dies. So don't be surprised if Cuba is back soon in the headlines. Barring a sudden increase in foreign aid — say, if Russia decides to ramp up its oil shipments to Cuba in response to escalating tensions with the United States over Ukraine — Cuba's crisis could bring about unprecedented challenges to its decrepit regime. Don't miss the 'Oppenheimer Presenta' TV show on Sundays at 9 pm E.T. on CNN en Español. Blog:
Straits Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Cuba stages May Day rallies as tensions mount with US
Cuba's former President Raul Castro, Cuba's President and First Secretary of the Communist Party Miguel Diaz-Canel and Cuba's former Vice President Jose Ramon Machado watch a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Norlys Perez HAVANA - Hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered in Havana's Revolution Square for the traditional May Day march on Thursday, amid a grueling economic crisis and as tensions ratchet up with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Raul Castro, 93, dressed in a military uniform and referred to as the leader of the revolution begun by his brother Fidel Castro in 1959, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel presided over the march. Diaz-Canel, in a message earlier this week, had called on residents to turn out despite the hard times in a show of unity in the face of increased U.S. pressure. The first Trump administration imposed new sanctions on the communist-run country on top of the decades-old trade embargo. The government says that action was the main cause of the current crisis, which has seen the economy shrink more than 15% over the last five years. "Everyone knew that they had to come because it is a moment of revolutionary reaffirmation in these convulsive and difficult times, and especially with imperialism intensifying its policies against Cuba," Diego Fernandez, 42, said as he marched in the Cuban capital. Other national leaders fanned out across the country to similar events, where large numbers of residents braved blackouts, poor transportation and a scarcity of basic goods to march. "This celebration of Labor Day in Cuba is a new demonstration of the respect of the Cuban People for their revolution," Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, president of the Cuban Federation of Workers, said as he opened the Havana event. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised to "get tough" with Cuba, his parents' homeland. Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy for Latin America, recently stated that new sanctions were being prepared and he believed a change of government in Cuba could be imminent. Cuba's foreign ministry this week blasted U.S. Chief of Mission Mike Hammer for using his office to foster "subversion" and arrested high-profile dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer, one of a number of government opponents the U.S. diplomat has visited recently. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Al Jazeera
15-03-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Huge power outage in Cuba leaves millions in darkness
Cuba's national power grid has collapsed once again, leaving millions of people without electricity. The grid failed on Friday evening about 8:15pm (00:15 GMT) after a breakdown at Diezmero substation in the capital, Havana, kicked off a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island, according to officials at operator Union Electrica (UNE). At sunrise on Saturday, UNE said it was generating only a trickle of electricity – about 225 MW, or less than 10 percent of total demand. Authorities said parallel circuits were helping provide electricity to key sectors, such as hospitals. 'Several provinces have parallel circuits and generator units are starting to be synchronised' with the national grid, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on X. The island of 9.7 million inhabitants had already suffered three nationwide blackouts in the final months of 2024, two of them lasting several days. While the latest grid collapse is the first one this year, it also comes as the island battles one of its biggest economic crises in 30 years. Hit by United States sanctions, Cuba has for years relied on subsidised Venezuelan oil, but that supply is increasingly precarious as the government in Caracas grapples with its own economic problems. 'Right now, no one knows when the power will come back on,' resident Abel Bonne told the Reuters news agency on Havana's Malecon waterfront boulevard early on Saturday. People in Havana have already been living with near-daily power cuts of four or five hours, while those outside the capital have been facing rolling blackouts that peaked at 20 hours a day in recent weeks. 'My God, this is terrible, we're in for a dark weekend,' Karen Gutierrez, a 32-year-old ice cream seller in Havana, told the AFP news agency. Andres Lopez, a 67-year-old resident of the eastern province of Holguin, added that he had not been expecting yet another blackout so soon. 'It really bugs me,' he said. 'Let's see when they get it [the power] back on.' Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era US trade embargo, a web of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials such as fuel and spare parts. US President Donald Trump recently tightened sanctions on the island's communist-run government, pledging to restore a 'tough' policy towards the longtime US foe. Meanwhile, to make up for its electricity shortfall, Cuba is racing to install a series of at least 55 solar farms with Chinese technology by the end of this year. Local authorities have said these facilities will generate some 1,200 MW of power, about 12 percent of the national total.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cuba opens solar park hoping to stave off blackouts
Cuba on Friday unveiled a new solar energy park in the capital Havana, part of an ambitious project to alleviate the communist island's increasingly desperate struggle with power blackouts. The dire state of Cuba's power generation infrastructure, largely dependent on oil from Venezuela, has seen the country of 10 million people struggle with near daily outages in some regions in recent months. In some provinces, electricity access is limited to a few hours a day. Cuba's eight outdated thermoelectric plants, most of them online since the 1980s and '90s, suffer frequent breakdowns. Under a US trade embargo since the 1960s and battling its worse economic crisis in decades, the country also uses floating electric plants rented from Turkish companies, and generators fueled by crude oil Cuba is struggling to pay for. The government in Havana has said it wants to install at least 55 solar parks by year's end to generate 1,200 megawatts of power -- raising its renewable energy generation from about five to 12 percent. The first such park, "the product of collaboration with the sister nation of #China," according to the presidency, went online Friday. Another is due to follow next week. "It's a beauty," the office of President Miguel Diaz-Canel added in a post on X accompanied by images of rows upon rows of shiny solar panels. The park has a capacity of 21.8 megawatts that will "progressively reduce the annoying blackouts during daylight hours" in the populous Havana municipality, state news portal Cubadebate said of the project. Earlier this month, the government was forced to shutter schools and close businesses for two days to save energy after electricity supply dropped to half of demand. By 2030, the country aims to generate more than a third of its electricity from solar parks and other renewable sources. lp/rd/mel/mlr/bbk
Reuters
21-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Cuba opens first of 92 solar parks in bid to tame energy crisis
HAVANA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel inaugurated the first of 92 solar parks on Friday as part of a Chinese-backed plan to ease hours-long blackouts across the Caribbean island nation. The park in Havana was one of 55 expected to come online this year, generating 1,200 megawatts, with the remainder opening by 2028. The Communist-run country's outdated power grid collapsed several times last year and a dire fuel shortage has made it impossible to run smaller clusters of diesel-fired generators that typically back up the system. Years of lengthy blackouts have undercut the economy and led to scattered protests among hard-pressed residents tired of a multifaceted crisis that includes scarcity of food, medicine and other basic goods. The parks are being heavily promoted by the government as a partial solution to people's burdens, which it blames largely on U.S. sanctions. "The recovery of the power grid is a priority and this is one of its safest routes," Diaz-Canel said in a tweet on Friday. Cuba has a maximum demand of around 3,500 MW, but it regularly fails to meet up to 1,500 MW of that, resulting in power outages. Cuba agreed in April for China to help it boost the role of solar power in its grid, though neither government elaborated on financing details. China's ambassador to Cuba, Hua Xin, attended the inauguration of the solar park in Havana. The event was closed to foreign journalists. Currently less than 5% of Cuban energy comes from alternative sources. Cuba's goal for 2030 is 24%.
