Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old social media manager in Havana, is very familiar with the routine. When the lights go out, the waiting begins. "Living like this is agony," she said. On Monday, July 6, 2026, this suffering affected the whole country. In the middle of the day, Cuba's state electricity company announced that the national power grid had completely failed.
Suddenly, about 10 million people were in the dark. This was not the first time. It was the third time this year that the whole island lost electricity, and the eighth total system failure since late 2024. For a country already facing serious shortages, the sudden loss of power stopped daily life.
Without electricity, modern life stops. A young software developer in the capital explained the problem simply. "We have no WiFi, no electricity, we can't work," he said. Besides losing money, people's survival is at risk. Food spoils, clean water stops flowing, and travel around the island has almost stopped. The United Nations has warned of a possible humanitarian crisis, noting that essential medicines are scarce and medical operations are being delayed.
The state electricity company is still trying to find out exactly why Monday's outage happened. However, the existing problems are well-known. The country relies heavily on old power plants built during the Soviet era. These old facilities need constant repairs, but fixing them is very difficult without new parts and, most importantly, fuel.
Cuba produces only about 40 percent of the oil it needs. The rest must be imported, which is now very hard. In January 2026, the United States placed strict sanctions on oil exports to Cuba. These sanctions have greatly limited fuel deliveries.
The energy crisis has caused a strong political argument. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has blamed Washington, calling the oil restrictions an "energy blockade." He believes the United States is trying to cause social unrest by cutting off fuel. Meanwhile, his government has tried to make changes. In June, Cuba introduced new financial rules to give businesses more freedom.
The U.S. State Department called these economic changes "superficial." Washington wants major political and economic changes in Cuba. U.S. President Donald Trump has even suggested that the U.S. military action in Venezuela could be a model for changing Cuba's government. In response, Cuban officials have stated clearly that their political system is not negotiable and they will defend against any military action. Recent talks between the two countries have not made any progress.
Millions of ordinary citizens are caught in the middle of this political conflict. The lack of fuel has reduced the country's power generation capacity by more than 1,500 megawatts. To manage this, authorities have implemented difficult rolling blackouts. Some areas in Havana have been without electricity for 30 hours straight, while rural areas have suffered for 70 hours.
Restoring a failed power grid is a slow process. Lazaro Guerra, an electricity director, noted that the lack of oil makes restarting the system very complicated. To protect the most vulnerable, the government has created emergency "microsystems" to keep hospitals and farms running. By Tuesday morning, power had slowly returned to about 30 percent of Havana, restoring electricity to many medical clinics and water pumps. However, for residents like Font, the return of the lights offers only temporary relief. As she said, the hardest part is the uncertainty. "You never know when it will return."