Major Blackout Hits Western Cuba as U.S. Sanctions and Lost Venezuelan Oil Deepen Energy Crisis

A large-scale blackout knocked out electricity across western Cuba on Wednesday after the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant unexpectedly shut down, leaving millions without power from Camagüey to Pinar del Río, including greater Havana. The U.S. Embassy in Havana said the 12:41 p.m. 'disconnection of the national electrical grid' reflects an increasingly unstable system where daily scheduled and unscheduled outages are now the norm, and warned residents and visitors to conserve fuel, water, food and phone charge. Cuban officials say at least one plant, Felton 1, remains online but local reports indicate it could take at least three days to restore normal operations, compounding chronic shortages from aging infrastructure and fuel scarcity. Those shortages have worsened since a recent U.S. military operation captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and halted Venezuelan oil exports, severing Cuba’s main fuel lifeline under a Trump‑era sanctions regime that Washington says targets hostile regimes but is clearly hammering ordinary Cubans. President Miguel Díaz‑Canel has vowed not to negotiate a new energy deal with the U.S., leaving the island trapped between a defiant government and a U.S. policy that is squeezing supplies without any clear off‑ramp, while wealthier Cubans and some businesses rely on solar panels and generators to ride out the outages.