New nationwide power outage in Cuba

TT

Published 00.55

 

Torchlights guide residents in Havana. Picture from Monday. Photo: Ramon Espinosa /AP/TT

For the second time in a week, all of Cuba has been hit by a power outage, the country's energy ministry said.

Electricity began to disappear in buildings in Havana around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, local time, just before darkness fell over the country. Work is underway to fix the problem.

US sanctions and a blockade of oil from Venezuela have deepened the energy and economic crisis in authoritarian-ruled Cuba.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel said a little over a week ago that the island nation had not received any oil deliveries in more than three months.

On Saturday, aid shipments from 120 organizations began arriving in Cuba, after a US oil embargo deepened the country's crisis.
 

Aid flows into crisis-stricken Cuba

People on the street in Havana during one of many power outages in Cuba. Archive photo. Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP/TT

Extensive aid shipments have begun to reach Cuba with solar panels, food and cancer drugs.

Planes from the Nuestra América convoy began landing in Cuba on Friday, from the United States, Europe and Latin America. They will be joined by three ships from Mexico that are expected to arrive on Saturday.

120 organizations from 33 countries are participating in the aid shipment of 20 tons of humanitarian aid.

Tensions are high between the United States and Cuba, with US President Donald Trump recently saying he expects to be given the honor of “taking Cuba in some form.” A US oil embargo has worsened the country’s economic crisis.

Cuba has rejected a request from the US embassy in Havana to import diesel for its generators. The Cuban government calls the request shameless, according to The Washington Post.