At 6 a.m. on Sunday, September 27, Cuba’s national grid had 1,240 megawatts available against demand of 2,750 megawatts, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported. The shortfall reached 1,500 megawatts. Across the island, power cuts, scarce fuel and shortages of everyday goods shape life under US sanctions and decisions made by Cuba’s own institutions.
Fourteen-year-old ballet student Roxana Pérez de La Mora gets up before dawn and travels about 20 kilometers from home to the National Ballet School in Havana. “Sometimes I tell my mom I don’t feel like going, but missing it could cause problems for me later in training,” she said. “I’ve always said that my dream is to be a prima ballerina.” Her determination meets a daily gauntlet of transportation shortages and unreliable electricity.
Who Controls the Economic Pressure
Cuba’s top trade official, Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, called the US trade embargo the biggest impediment to the country’s free-market reforms. “It is not our policy to prohibit US companies from investing in Cuba, trading with Cuba, or conducting business of any kind with Cuba,” he told Reuters. “What prevents this possibility is the existence of the trade embargo.”
The Trump administration has renewed sanctions, including an oil blockade imposed in January that nearly wiped out imports from Mexico, Venezuela and other former top fuel suppliers. Washington says Cuba’s reforms don’t go far enough and has called for “free and fair” elections. Perez-Oliva says Washington must ease sanctions for further progress; if fully implemented, the reforms unveiled in June would mark the biggest change to the island’s socialist economy since Fidel Castro took control in 1959.
Sanctions also leave foreign companies weighing whether they can keep operating. Canada’s Sherritt International suspended direct participation in a nickel and cobalt mining joint venture with the Cuban government after a Trump administration executive order in May threatened sanctions on mining-related businesses. Australia’s Antilles Gold was considering its next move. Perez-Oliva said neither company had withdrawn, but both were evaluating alternatives. Media reports say US investors have shown interest in the companies but still haven’t received permits exempting them from US sanctions.
Perez-Oliva also criticized a US State Department policy that allows US companies to export fuel to Cuba’s private sector, saying it would force economic dependence on the United States. “We will never again be a colony of any country,” he said. He denied Cuban officials had met with businesses linked to US President Donald Trump. Reuters reviewed minutes showing Trump business associates visited Cuba in 2016 and met top tourism officials to discuss opportunities.
The Cost Reaches Homes, Banks and Classrooms
For months, two-thirds of Cuba had no electricity at night, the Associated Press reported. Some Havana neighborhoods went without running water for more than two weeks; transportation was scarce, and eggs, bread and cooking oil were hard to find. The national grid shut down completely on September 18, the eighth nationwide blackout of 2026, according to a ministry statement reported by Martí Noticias. OnCuba blamed aging power plants, frequent breakdowns and fuel-supply problems for the crisis.
Ballet students still met each morning for dance training and classes in mathematics, Spanish, history and science. At the season-ending gala in August, the National Ballet performed “Canto Vital” to a full Avellaneda Hall, despite fuel shortages that had left Havana’s streets nearly empty. Principal dancer Dani Hernández said persistent blackouts, heat and mosquitoes forced him to sleep on his building’s terrace. “Whether I have electricity or not, I have to be in the studio,” he said. “But I keep thinking: Will the food in my refrigerator spoil?” He warned the crisis could affect students in ballet, music, engineering, medicine, education and other fields.
Cash shortages have left ordinary account holders caught between a failing service and police enforcement. Cuba began moving payments into bank accounts and electronic channels on August 3, 2023. Some shops still refuse bank transfers, while branches and ATMs often run short of cash, feeding a street market where people pay fees to exchange account balances for notes. A complaint reported in July said a 1,000-peso transfer bought only 600 pesos.
The central bank ordered “zero tolerance” for corruption among bank staff in a statement published September 28. Héroes del Moncada, a pro-government Facebook page linked to the Interior Ministry, reported that authorities detained staff from state banks BPA and Bandec, suspected of selling scarce cash for fees of 30% to 50%. Authorities haven’t named those detained; they haven’t published precise charges or the amount of cash seized. They’re presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise.
The bank ordered investigations, tighter controls and more audits, and said whistleblowers would receive confidentiality and “no reprisals.” It announced no new withdrawal limits and no measures to add banknotes to branches or ATMs. One reader responding to the bank’s post put the shortage plainly: “If there were money in the bank and cash machines, nobody would profit from trading cash for a percentage.”
Investment, Reforms and Who Gets to Decide
A Saudi-funded project is moving ahead at Havana’s harbour edge as the island faces fuel and power shortages. Plans for the King Salman Mosque include prayer halls for about 500 people, a public library, dining hall, gardens and community rooms. Official sources cited by 14ymedio put the budget at about US$9.3 million from the Saudi Fund for Development. Whether Cuba asked Saudi Arabia for oil or fuel credit isn’t publicly known.
State bodies, foreign investors and sanctions imposed by Washington shape how Cuba manages its energy crisis and proposed economic changes. The account describes no organized, community-led mutual-aid response to the shortages. Instead, it records families navigating blackouts, students making long trips to class, bank customers struggling to access their own money, and companies calculating the risk of sanctions. Perez-Oliva said he would keep working to improve the economy and attract foreign investment. “I am simply a public servant,” he said, “and I will work wherever I am needed, without aspiring to any particular position.”