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Cuba plunges into darkness as its power grid fails

STORY: Millions of people in Cuba were without power on Friday (October 18) after the island's largest and most efficient power plant failed, the energy minster said. Earlier in the day the government had shut down schools and non-essential industry and sent most state workers home in a bid to keep the lights on.President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on X that, quote, "there will be no rest" until power is restored. Grid officials said they did not know how long it would take.The outage comes as residents are already struggling with shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine. This resident says the situation looks bleak."It's too hard, too hard. This is in decline and there are more and more blackouts. This is on the verge of total collapse."While demand for electricity grows, fuel supply has all but dried up on an island that produces comparatively little of its own.Prime Minister Manuel Marrero spoke on national TV on Thursday. He said the blackouts were due to the situation well-known to most Cubans – deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand. Dangerous weather conditions that began with Hurricane Milton last week crippled the country’s ability to deliver fuel to powerplants from boats offshore, officials said. The government has also long blamed the U.S. Cold War-era embargo and sanctions under former President Donald Trump, for difficulties in acquiring fuel and spare parts to operate its oil-fired plants. Cuba’s largest oil supplier, Venezuela, has also reduced shipments in the first nine months of the year, according to vessel-monitoring data and internal shipping documents.Russia and Mexico have also greatly reduced fuel shipments to the island.Earlier on Friday, Cuban electricity officials said they expect power generation to improve in the coming days as the weather allows fuel from prior deliveries to be distributed around the island.