A bus drives along a dark street as Cuba begins efforts to restore power after its grid collapsed for the second time in a week amid a US oil blockade that has dealt a major blow to the island's already ailing energy infrastructure, Havana, Cuba March 22, 2026. NORLYS PEREZ / REUTERS
Cuba began restoring its energy system on Sunday, March 22, a day after a nationwide collapse of the entire grid left millions of people in the dark for the third time this month. Two-thirds of Havana had power again in the afternoon, the capital's electricity company said, a day after the Energy Ministry reported a "total disconnection" of the national electric system in the country of nearly 10 million people.
The grid was reconnected across most of the country on Sunday, from Pinar del Rio in the far west to Santiago de Cuba in the far east, with two provinces left to link up, the state-owned Electric Union of Cuba said on X.
The outage comes as Cuba's communist government has faced growing pressure from US President Donald Trump, who imposed the de facto oil blockade in January and mused this week about "taking" the Caribbean island. A top Cuban diplomat said the country's military was "preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression."
