Tens of thousands of Cubans packed Havana’s seaside seawall on May 1 for a May Day rally that put electric and petroleum workers at the center of the island’s fight to keep critical services running. Electric Union employees said they are working around the clock as Cuba’s power grid continues to crumble and outages remain widespread, with fuel shortages adding to the strain.
At the march, Yunier Meriño Reyes, an accountant with the Electric Union, said the work has meant “a very tough, arduous and relentless effort — day and night” to provide electricity to people who need it. Carreño, 53, who works at the Electric Union’s command center, said, “Resources aren’t reaching us, but all of us workers are still here,” adding that workers keep going “24 hours a day.”
The rally came as Cuba’s energy and labor system has been shaped by disruptions to fuel supplies. The island’s power crisis deepened after the U.S. attacked Venezuela in early January, halting critical oil shipments from the South American country, and after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba later in January. Cuba said it then went more than three months without a single oil shipment, relying instead on natural gas, limited solar power and deteriorating thermoelectric plants.
Cuba described the change after a Russian tanker laden with 730,000 barrels docked in late March, according to the report. The oil had to be refined, a process the government said took roughly two weeks, and refinery workers said they were already under heavy schedules before and through the process. Rafael Martínez, a refinery worker at Cuba’s Petroleum Union, said refinery crews had been working “eight hours a day without stopping,” and he recalled his joy when he learned the tanker had docked.
Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s energy and mines minister, told reporters that the situation was “brutal,” and he later described how the government managed power after the Russian oil arrived. He said it took about two weeks to refine the oil and that once the fuel was available, the government chose to prioritize vital sectors including agriculture and food production rather than trying to run everything at once. De la O Levy said Cuba had more hours of power outages than anticipated because officials diverted some of the energy supply toward production, telling reporters that factories could not be left idle.
De la O Levy said some of the petroleum was converted into about 6,000 tons of diesel and fuel oil used to power hospitals, generators and transportation. He said Cuba’s situation began to improve starting April 17, adding that improvement was “not the desired one, but significant.” De la O Levy also said the government distributed 800 tons of fuel a day out of 1,600 tons needed for a higher output scenario, explaining that using 1,600 tons would have reduced fuel endurance and lengthened the overall crisis.
The minister said officials expected the Russian oil to last only until the end of April, while prioritizing the sustainment of Cuba’s thermoelectric plants using Cuban crude oil. He warned that without additional fuel, Cuba would face “a total, systemwide blackout.” In the background of those comments, the report said Cuba produces 40% of its required fuel and depends heavily on imports.
Other officials and workers described how they have been adapting operations to keep equipment running despite fuel constraints. Pedro Luis López Manzano, an engineer and director of maintenance at the Cienfuegos refinery, said in a video that crews had to take several steps to keep the refinery operable because it had been shut down for four months, calling it “a challenge” but one workers believed was possible. Gustavo Rodríguez Cordero, an engineer and director general at the Petroleum Union in Villa Clara, criticized the U.S. energy blockade in a company video, saying, “No one has the international right to oppress a people in this manner.”
The May Day celebration also highlighted workplace messages broadcast by Cuba’s petroleum sector. The Petroleum Union posted a video featuring workers including José Antonio Báez, who said, “Our work generates the entire economy of the country. We drive the country’s economy,” while colleagues rallied around him with cowbells and a large drum.