Faced with power cuts in Cuba, Havana rations its electricity

View of the empty streets of Havana, March 25, 2020 (photo illustration).

YAMIL LAGE / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

While the prices of hydrocarbons have soared since the start of the war in Ukraine, Cuba is finding it increasingly difficult to operate its power plants, due to lack of fuel and maintenance. 

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Officially, Cuba currently has enough to meet around 80% of its electricity needs.

But in rural areas of the country, people sometimes find themselves without power for more than ten hours a day.

The capital, Havana, was relatively spared so far.

This is no longer the case since Monday.

No electricity between 10 am and 2 pm, all three days.

This is the measure announced by the governor of Havana, Reinaldo Garcia Zapata, in solidarity with the rest of the country, he said.

The Carnival festivities, which usually take place on weekends in August, will be shortened and postponed until the end of the month.

" 

Return the power 

"

This Saturday again, dozens of people demonstrated in at least three provincial towns, to protest against prolonged power cuts.

To the sound of pots or cries of " 

", other demonstrations have also taken place in recent weeks.

Due to the summer heat, the demand for electricity is higher, but the country's power plants are old, poorly maintained and regularly break down.

The arrival of 700,000 barrels of Russian oil in Cuba two weeks ago was apparently not enough to compensate for the drop in oil deliveries from neighboring Venezuela.

Last year, power cuts, combined with shortages of fuel, food and medicine, sparked the

in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. More than 600 demonstrators have since been sentenced to jail.

Power cuts and shortages to which is also added an epidemic of dengue, the most important in the country for nearly 15 years.

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• Cuba

• Energies