HAVANA: A power outage struck most of Cuba, including the capital Havana, as the island’s communist-run government faces increasing pressure from the Trump administration.

Cuba has experienced a series of major blackouts in recent years, even before the US cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean’s largest island.

Cuba’s government has attributed its economic crisis to decades of economic sanctions from the US.

A more recent scarcity of oil from Venezuela and Mexico due to US pressure has worsened existing shortages.

The country’s electricity union said it was working to restore services, and that the blackout affected the island from the central province of Camaguey to Pinar del Rio in the far west.

A thermoelectric power plant in eastern Cuba remains online and recovery protocols have been activated, Cuba’s energy ministry said.

Venezuela, Cuba’s top oil supplier, has not sent shipments since December.

Mexico said it would halt supplies after the US threatened tariffs on countries supplying Cuba with oil.

The power cuts have caused the government to ration key services.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2026