Cuba was left without electricity on Monday after the collapse of its national power grid, cutting supply to an estimated 10 million people amid worsening fuel shortages linked to United States (US) sanctions.
The state grid operator, Unión Eléctrica (UNE), said it was investigating the cause of the failure, the latest in a series of nationwide outages that have stretched for hours or days in recent months.
Reports insisted that the repeated blackouts have heightened public frustration and over the weekend triggered a rare violent protest in the communist-run country.
The collapse comes as pressure mounts on Havana following tighter US measures against the island.
Washington has stepped up sanctions this year after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and warning of tariffs on any country supplying fuel to the island.
US President Donald Trump has said Cuba is close to economic collapse and keen to strike a deal with Washington.
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Cuban officials confirmed on Friday that talks with the United States had begun in an effort to ease the crisis.
Cuba’s electricity system, much of it decades old, has been severely affected by the loss of imported fuel.
According to ship-tracking data, only two small oil-related deliveries have reached the island this year.
One tanker arrived from Mexico in January, while another vessel from Jamaica delivered liquefied petroleum gas in February.
Venezuela, once Cuba’s main oil supplier, has not sent fuel to the island so far this year.
Although Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA loaded gasoline onto a tanker last month, the vessel has not left Venezuelan waters, according to shipping data and company documents.
Satellite imagery analysed by TankerTrackers.com showed no major fuel imports through Cuba’s main energy ports, including Matanzas and Moa, in 2026.
The ports of Havana and Cienfuegos have also seen no import activity for more than a month.
It was said that officials have not given a timeline for restoring nationwide power, as engineers work to stabilise the grid and assess the scale of the damage.