Cuba’s biggest blackout in at least two years left millions without power and prompted the government to announce emergency measures

Cuba’s biggest blackout in at least two years left millions without power and prompted the government to announce emergency measures

Millions of Cubans were plunged into total darkness as they faced a country-wide blackout after a power plant failed, causing the nation’s electrical grid to disconnect.

Government officials, who had warned about ongoing blackouts in recent days, implemented emergency measures such as suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling non-essential services

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in an address on Thursday evening that the government had been “paralyzing” the economy in recent weeks in an attempt to continue providing electricity to citizens.

For weeks, Cuba has suffered a fuel shortage which has impacted the ability to run the power grid. Parts of the country have had no power for 12 hours a day. When power is turned on, demand increases putting a strain on the weak infrastructure.

That is, in part, due to an economic crisis and weather-related problems which have made imports difficult to obtain.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    1 month ago

    This has made me curious to see what the US State department claimed requisites for lifting sanctions are:

    The United States has set specific conditions for lifting sanctions against Cuba, primarily outlined in the Helms-Burton Act. These include legalizing political activities, releasing political prisoners, committing to free and fair elections, granting press freedom, respecting human rights, and allowing labor unions.

    Now, it’s debatable if that’s actually the case or just the State Department hiding a retaliatory policy behind rhetoric, but I don’t take issue with any of those, personally.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      1 month ago

      The actual issue is that all the rich people under the corrupt Batista government, which was basically a U.S. puppet government, got their shit confiscated when they fled to Florida. The U.S. has never cared about democracy and human rights but we definitely didn’t back then.

      If you need evidence, the “Helms-Burton Act” sponsors were scum. Here is part of the opening to the Wikipedia article for Sen. Helms:

      On domestic social issues, Helms opposed civil rights, disability rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

      And Rep. Burton was corrupt as fuck. He’s still alive if anyone in Indiana wants to find his house and shit on his porch.

    • pandapoo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      That is for all intents and purposes, horseshit.

      Replace all of those words with “the Florida Cuban vote, octogenarian government, and bureaucratic inertia” and you would be exponentially closer to the truth of the matter.

      And before you say, or think, that is reductive or flippant, that doesn’t mean it’s not a more accurate representation of the actual political obstacles regarding US Cuban policy.