Havana announces power cuts and cancels carnival as crisis deepens

HAVANA, July 30 (Reuters) – Cuba’s capital Havana will begin power cuts in August, canceled carnival and take other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, local authorities reported on Saturday. official media.

The capital, home to a fifth of Cuba’s population of 11.2 million and the center of Cuba’s economic activity, had been spared the daily power cuts of four hours or more that the rest of the island suffers for months.

Power outages sparked a few small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled an unprecedented day of unrest across the country as discontent boiled over.

For now, a schedule of power cuts will mean that each of Havana’s six municipalities will have their electricity cut off every three days during the midday peak hours, according to the local Communist Party daily Tribuna de la Habana, who reported on a meeting of the authorities.

The power cuts reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with tough new US sanctions on the island in 2019 and worsened with the pandemic that emptied tourism and then the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Soaring prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as decaying infrastructure. The country’s economy fell 10.9% in 2020, recovering only 1.3% last year.

Cubans have weathered more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to buy scarce goods, high prices and transportation problems. Power outages have only added to the frustration, leading to an exodus of more than 150,000 Cubans since October to the United States, and more elsewhere.

“Now is the time to show solidarity and help the rest of Cuba suffer less from unwanted blackouts,” Havana Communist Party leader Luis Antonio Torres was quoted as saying by Tribuna.

Torres and others present at the meeting insisted they were acting in solidarity with fellow Cubans, not out of necessity, and announced other measures such as mass vacations to shut down public businesses, working from home and a 20% reduction in energy allowances for private companies. with high consumption. The canceled carnival was due to take place next month.

Jorge Pinon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program at the University of Texas at Austin, said he offered a different assessment than Torres. He said the entire power grid was on the brink of collapse after recent fires at two of 20 already obsolete power stations, with others constantly failing.

“When you continue to run equipment beyond its maintenance schedule, it falls into a downward spiral with no short-term solution,” he told Reuters.

“The planned outages announced are not solidarity but rather a necessity to avoid a possible total collapse of the system,” Pinon said.

Reporting by Marc Frank Editing by Frances Kerry

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