Cuba’s widening economic and political turmoil has deepened after the island was hit by a blackout that opened a fresh point of pressure in its tense relationship with the United States. The Associated Press reported that Cuba’s latest darkness followed the country’s third major power-grid failure since December, highlighting how unreliable electricity has become for daily survival and governance.
The outages have arrived alongside mounting constraints on fuel availability and broader breakdowns in services, leaving many residents struggling to keep food from spoiling and to maintain routine access to transportation and medical care. The AP reported that hospitals canceled surgeries during the disruption, and that the leading university reduced classes, citing both power outages and transportation shutdowns.
U.S. officials have tied the mounting blackouts directly to Cuba’s political arrangements and leadership. The AP said the U.S. State Department described the ongoing power failures as a symptom of the Cuban government’s failure to provide the most basic needs for its people, and it reported that Trump made the issue part of his remarks while discussing Cuba at an unrelated White House event on Tuesday.
During that event, the AP reported, Trump turned to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants. Rubio said Cuba’s current political system and government cannot fix the country’s problems and argued that “So they have to change dramatically,” according to the AP. Earlier, the AP reported, Trump also suggested he might be able to take Cuba, saying, “I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I could do anything I want with it,” on Monday.
The pressure campaign described by U.S. officials centers on sanctions and political conditions directed at Havana. The AP reported that the Trump administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for lifting sanctions, while Trump has for months suggested Cuba’s government may be nearing collapse.
AP reporting also described how those statements sit alongside the administration’s interest in possible leadership change in Cuba. It reported that Trump suggested top Cuban leaders should avoid the fate of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who the AP said was arrested in a U.S. military operation in January, and it reported that U.S. officials are looking for Díaz-Canel to leave power, citing a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of talks between Washington and Havana who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions.
Within Cuba, the AP said Díaz-Canel confirmed last week that there have been discussions with Washington. The AP reported that Díaz-Canel did not provide specifics about the talks but said they were aimed at finding solutions to the “bilateral differences between our two nations.” That confirmation came as Cuba continues to face a fuel squeeze that, according to the AP, has been worsened by the U.S. halting oil shipments from Venezuela over the past three months.
The fuel limits have reduced electricity generation and increased rationing and disruption. The AP reported that Cuba is relying on its own natural gas, solar power and its own oil to run thermoelectric plants, but that this has not been enough to meet demand. It said that Cuba’s daily power problems have included buses cutting routes, gas being strictly rationed, and a Cuban official describing health care as teetering.
The AP also reported that Cuba’s power outages are tied to the condition of the grid itself. It said the island’s aging system has deteriorated in recent years to the point of being unreliable, producing daily outages and more frequent major blackouts, and it reported that the thermoelectric plants are in poor shape with limited maintenance. The AP further said U.S. sanctions have prevented the government from buying new equipment and specialized parts, and that shortages of fuel oil and diesel have limited power production.
In this setting, each blackout becomes both a humanitarian strain and a political signal. As Washington links electricity failures to its view of Cuba’s leadership and system, Havana has continued to acknowledge dialogue with the U.S. while saying the talks aim at differences between the two nations, leaving residents uncertain about what could come next.