There is no electricity in Cuba on Friday. There was a massive failure of the largest power plant in the country and the power grid stopped working, said the Minister of Energy in Havana.
According to Reuters, the communist government of Cuba – in order to save energy – earlier on Friday ordered the closure of all schools, institutions and companies that do not perform the most important tasks for the functioning of the state. Thus, most public sector employees were sent home.
However, as it turns out, this was not enough. In the afternoon, the Minister of Energy announced that the Antonio Guiteras power plant – the largest in the country – had a breakdown and stopped working. Cuba's power grid has been shut down. There is no electricity throughout the country.
“We will not rest until the electricity is restored,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.
Reuters writes that services and officials are unable to predict when electricity will be restored. Already before noon, the first private generators could be heard on the streets of Havana, starting to operate in some houses, apartments, restaurants and other buildings. Residents went out into the streets, looked for shade and at the same time opened the doors and windows of their apartments to let in the cold.
The social and economic situation in Cuba, which has approximately 11 million inhabitants, is currently considered the worst since the revolution led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s. A record number of people have fled Cuba in the last two years. Life and business activities electricity shortages on the island have been increasingly difficult for years.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/ERNESTO MASTRASCUSA