HAVANA — Cuba was plunged into darkness by an islandwide electricity blackout that affected its 11 million habitants on Monday, hours after the country announced it would allow foreign investment for the first time.
People spilled onto the streets of Havana after the aging electrical grid collapsed, the result of Cuba’s ongoing energy crisis.
Havana resident Isabel Garcia showed NBC News around her home, which she lights using a bicycle lamp and cellphones. She buys food every day to avoid letting it spoil.
“It’s very hard,” she said. “What Cubans are going through is very hard.”
It's been three months since any oil shipment has reached the country and the highways are empty. Cuba blames the United States for the fuel shortage — oil tankers are banned from entering Cuban waters by a U.S. blockade.
On Friday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the country was running on about 40% of the fuel it needs, and that figure is dwindling daily as no fuel is entering the country.
The result is that women are giving birth in dark hospitals with no power, and locals say they are used to power lasting just two to five hours daily.
"This is an abuse. What will happen, it will be two or three days without electricity and what little we have to eat spoils," Tomás David Valáquez said. "No one says anything and no one has any answers for anything."
Fortunately, on Monday, there was at least some cloud cover to alleviate the effects of the 84-degree heat.
The Cuban Energy and Mines Ministry confirmed on X that there was a "complete disconnection" of the national grid and said it was investigating.
The U.S. Embassy in Havana said in a statement on X that the national power grid failed Monday at 1:54 p.m., affecting the entire island, including the metropolitan area of Havana.
"Cuba's national electrical grid is increasingly unstable, and scheduled and unscheduled power outages are prolonged and a daily occurrence throughout the country, including Havana," it said. The embassy urged people to conserve "fuel, water, food, and your mobile phone charge."
By Tuesday morning, 31% of Havana's power had been restored.
Lázaro Guerra, the ministry’s electricity director, told state media late Monday that crews were trying to restart several thermoelectric plants, which are key to restoring power.
The blackout came hours after Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga told NBC News that the country was now "open to having a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies," meaning that U.S.-based investors could offer financial backing for Cuba’s previously closed-off economy and potentially boost its failing infrastructure.
Some in the U.S. do conduct business with Cuba legally, but the American trade embargo prohibits many businesses from doing so officially.
How the new economic relationship would work, however, remains in doubt: Congress still has to ratify the change and some lawmakers are skeptical of the need for reform.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told NBC News: "I would ask and advise any Cuban that lives here or any Cuban that lives in exile, don't invest in Cuba, you're wasting your time."
Some Cuban American activists gathered in Miami on Monday to make sure Washington heard their plea for change.
"If we don't have any change in political rights, if we don't have any political guarantees, then there is no economic that's possible," Salomé Garcia, a Cuban national, said.
"Freedom is being able to change your destiny. It's about Cuban sovereignty, not about business," said Agustín Garcia, a Cuban exile.
There are currently no mass protests; people here are used to the disruption. But on Saturday, some anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in Morón as anger rose over repeated blackouts.
Meanwhile, in Washington, President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to take control of Cuba or carry out a "friendly takeover."
In a sign that such a move would be strongly opposed by Russia, which remains a Cuban ally, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a regular phone call with reporters Tuesday: "Cuba is an independent and sovereign state that faces significant economic difficulties due to the stifling embargo imposed on the country."
George Solis and Mary Murray reported from Havana, and Patrick Smith from London.
