At 6 a.m. on September 27, Cuba’s national grid had 1,240 megawatts available against demand of 2,750 megawatts, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported. Two-thirds of the island went without electricity overnight, the Associated Press reported, as fuel shortages and limited transport disrupted daily life.
Ballet dancer Dani Hernández rides an electric motorcycle to class and has slept on his building’s terrace during blackouts. “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?”
Cuba’s foreign trade and deputy prime minister, Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, said the US trade embargo is the biggest impediment to carrying out the country’s free-market reforms. “What prevents this possibility is the existence of the trade embargo,” he told Reuters, referring to US companies investing, trading or doing business in Cuba.
Sanctions and investment
Cuba announced unprecedented free-market reforms in June under increased pressure from the Trump administration, including renewed sanctions. Perez-Oliva said Washington must ease sanctions for further progress. The United States says the reforms don’t go far enough and has called for “free and fair” elections.
An oil blockade imposed in January all but wiped out imports from Mexico, Venezuela and other former top fuel suppliers, the article reported. OnCuba attributed the energy crisis to aging plants, frequent breakdowns and fuel-supply problems, including limited domestic oil output and what it called a US blockade on imports. The Antonio Guiteras plant, Cuba’s largest single generating unit, returned to service on September 27 after workers repaired its boiler. The national grid shut down completely on September 18, the eighth nationwide blackout of 2026, according to a Ministry of Energy and Mines statement reported by Martí Noticias.
US oil and fuel exports to Cuba rose to 778,000 barrels in June from 476,000 in May, according to US data. The June figure amounted to about 26,000 barrels a day, compared with 1,000 barrels for all of January, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Perez-Oliva said US policy was tilting some sectors toward US investors while threatening international companies that have traditionally worked with Cuba. He cited a State Department policy allowing US companies to export fuel to Cuba’s private sector and called it an attempt to force economic dependence. In 2016, Trump’s business associates visited Cuba and met top tourism officials to discuss opportunities, according to meeting minutes Reuters reviewed. Perez-Oliva denied that Cuban officials had met with representatives of businesses linked to Trump.
A Trump administration executive order in May threatened sanctions on mining-related businesses in Cuba. Canada’s Sherritt International then suspended direct participation in a nickel and cobalt mining joint venture with the Cuban government. Australia’s Antilles Gold, which holds a copper and gold mine in Cuba, was weighing its next move. Perez-Oliva said neither company had withdrawn and that both were evaluating alternatives. US investors had shown interest in both companies but had yet to receive permits exempting them from US sanctions, according to media reports.
Blackouts, cash and daily life
Fourteen-year-old ballet student Roxana Pérez de La Mora travels about 20 kilometers from home to school. “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.”
Hernández said the power crisis could affect future generations of dancers and students in other fields, including engineering, medicine and education. Fuel shortages left Havana’s streets nearly empty during the National Ballet’s season-ending gala in August, while patrons filled the National Theatre of Cuba’s Avellaneda Hall and gave the performance a standing ovation.
The electricity crisis has coincided with shortages of running water, transport, eggs, bread and cooking oil. Some Havana neighborhoods had gone more than two weeks without running water, according to the base report. Solar parks reached 626 megawatts at midday on September 26.
Cash shortages have also created a market where people pay fees to exchange bank-account balances for cash. Cuba began moving payments into bank accounts and electronic channels on August 3, 2023. The central bank said cash was costly to print, move and store, but some shops still refuse bank transfers, and branches and ATMs often run short of notes. In July, a complaint CiberCuba reported said a 1,000-peso transfer bought only 600 pesos.
Staff at state banks BPA and Bandec were among people detained in Santiago de Cuba, suspected of selling scarce cash for fees of 30% to 50%, according to a pro-government Facebook page linked to the Interior Ministry. Authorities haven’t named the people detained, and they haven’t published the number detained, precise charges or value of seized cash. They’re presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise.
The central bank’s September 28 statement ordered “zero tolerance” for corruption among bank staff and called for investigations, tighter controls and more audits. It said the conduct did “not characterise Cuban bank workers” and attributed sector problems to “the economic crisis and the tightening of the blockade.” The statement imposed no new withdrawal limits and included no measure to add banknotes to branches or ATMs.
Officials have outlined 20 planned banking changes, including room for banks with private and foreign capital, consumer loans and more digital services. The changes will roll out gradually, and officials hadn’t announced details of consumer loans. Meanwhile, the central bank began issuing 10,000-peso and 20,000-peso notes on September 16, the highest denominations Cuba has issued.