Non-essential workers, students stay home amid blackouts in Cuba

STORY: :: Blackouts in Cuba force schools to close,

non-essential workers to stay home

:: February 13, 2025

:: Havana, Cuba

:: February 14, 2025

:: Ramon Rondon, Local resident

“We are having a difficult time with the children. The blackouts are widespread and very close together. You can hardly be at home; you must go outside, especially with a small child. Mainly on Sundays, when the children are home, you must be outside because you can’t be inside.”

Only six of the country’s 15 oil-fired power plants are in operation, according to government reports, and a dire fuel shortage has made it impossible to run smaller clusters of diesel-fired generators that typically back up the system.

The predicament has hobbled the island’s creaky electrical system and led to the largest blackouts since several nationwide grid collapses late last year left the entire nation of 10 million people in the dark, prompting scattered protests and unrest.