Cuba's Energy Grid Fails ... Again

Cuba's national energy grid suffered a total collapse Monday, creating an island-wide blackout. Cuba is no stranger to power outages. Just a week ago, the Western half of the island was hit with a power outage, leaving millions without electricity. A year ago, Havana and Western Cuba were also hit with a power outage. In October 2024, the whole island was without power for a couple of days as one of its power plants "failed." The blackout is different. It takes place in the context of Cuba's primary allies being unable to assist, of the U.S. controlling energy supplies to Cuba, and an American president who, unlike decades of predecessors who were happy to let Cuba foment violence in Latin America and the Caribbean and act as proxies in parts of Africa, is dead set on driving the current communist government from power.

The last four months have been disastrous for Cuba as Latin America adjusted to firm actions by President Trump to strengthen U.S. diplomacy there. In November, Peru declared the Cuban ambassador persona non grata and sent him packing for election interference and using the Cuban embassy for subversive activities. A week ago, Ecuador did the same for similar reasons. The close friendship between Trump and Argentina's Milei, and the recent landslide election of Jose Antonio Kast in Chile, have left Cuba isolated in the region.
Of course, nothing more isolated Cuba than the brilliant coup on January 3 when Maduro was dragged out of bed and bundled off to a federal jail in Manhattan. This eliminated Cuba's most significant patron in Latin America and about 60 percent of its fuel for power generation. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico, under American pressure, followed suit in February and suspended shipments of oil to Cuba.
The commies in Havana were bright enough to see the writing on the wall and have been frantically trying to make a deal.
Cuban officials complained that no oil has arrived in three months, and while Cuba does produce some oil and has a small investment in "renewables," the lack of oil from Venezuela is causing huge problems. But their biggest problem may not be a lack of oil. A catastrophic fire at Cuba's largest oil refinery calls into question its ability to use oil at all.
And the source of this blackout is not a lack of oil; it is aging, decrepit, and poorly maintained infrastructure.
But let's look at some of the other things going on.
In February, Cuban border troops fired on a speedboat registered in Florida. The small craft was overloaded with people and weapons. Now the Cuban government has invited the FBI to visit Cuba as part of its investigation. This would have been unthinkable only a year ago.
This "charm offensive" has another component. Cuba announced it is willing to let Cubans nationals in America and American companies invest in Cuba.
Like Maduro before him and like the Iranian government, Cuba's government seems to be trying to run the old "rope-a-dope" on Trump. They are offering minor concessions and hoping to outlast Trump. At this point, I'd think that just about anyone would know that is not a great bet and an even worse evolutionary strategy.

https://redstate.com/streiff/2026/03/16/cubas-energy-grid-fails-as-trump-gives-the-options-and-timeline-for-solving-cubas-commie-problem-n2200289