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(Bloomberg) — A US energy blockade is hampering Cuba’s attempts to restore electricity almost 24 hours after a nationwide blackout hit the communist-run island, officials said.
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As of Tuesday morning, power had been restored to parts of eastern Cuba and Havana, but the lack of available diesel means some distributed energy centers can’t be immediately restarted, state-run news outlet CubaDebate reported, citing Félix Estrada Rodríguez, a director at the national electrical union.
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Estrada said the dearth of fuel was sapping the system of some 1,200 megawatts, making the grid “feeble” and susceptible to breakdowns.
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While blackouts have been common on the communist-run island for years, President Donald Trump’s administration has barred all but one major fuel delivery to Cuba since January as part of a growing US pressure campaign to topple the government.
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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez is scheduled to denounce the energy blockade at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
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Power outages and hunger have led to rare protests on the island of 10 million people, including sporadic ones this year. The most widespread, however, was on July 11, 2021, which led to a broad crackdown and more than 5,000 arrests.
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President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a post on X Monday evening, accused Washington of trying to “induce a social explosion through asphyxiation by blocking Cuba’s access to fuel.”
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The US Embassy in Havana said it had received reports of cellphone and internet outages due to the blackout and warned US citizens to take precautions. “There have been seven nationwide power outages in the past 18 months,” the embassy said in a security alert late Monday, adding that planned outages now occur more often and last longer.
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Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have steadily expanded sanctions on the island in a bid to end nearly seven decades of one-party rule. US and Cuban officials have been negotiating, but Rodríguez said last week talks were effectively deadlocked.
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With Rubio insisting Cuba’s current leaders must step aside, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro — the grandson of 95-year-old revolutionary leader Raúl Castro — has emerged as a key interlocutor between Washington and Havana. In an interview published Monday, Rodríguez Castro told USA Today he “can negotiate with anyone designated by the US,” including Trump himself.
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