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Blackouts and fuel blockade
Cuba said it had reconnected most of the country to the national grid by late on Tuesday, but millions remained without power as the island nation struggled to generate even one-third of current demand during an ongoing U.S. fuel blockade.
The Reuters report said Cuba’s grid operator UNE reconnected the grid from Pinar del Rio, in far western Cuba, to Holguin in the east, while Santiago de Cuba remained disconnected and without power.
Reuters also said about two-thirds of the capital Havana had seen power restored by late Tuesday, though another unexpected widespread outage hit the city around 6 p.m. ET.
Amauri Gonzalez, a local resident, said, “I don’t see a quick fix to this problem,” and added, “Our power plants are obsolete and there’s no fuel.”
UN debate and competing claims
At a UN General Assembly debate requested by Cuba, the UN approved an urgent debate on the need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States, with 136 votes in favor, nine against and 30 abstentions.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told the body that “The government of the United States is carrying out against Cuba a multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare,” and said the blockade’s “collective punishment” of the population should be addressed by the United Nations.
The U.S. ambassador Michael Waltz insisted from the podium, “There is no American blockade,” and said, “The only embargo in Cuba is the guillotine the regime keeps over the heads of its people.”
The Express Tribune reported that Rodriguez denounced the “ruthless” US embargo and said the blockade had become “ever more cruel and more ruthless during the last seven months.”
Humanitarian stakes and pressure
Mexico denounced at the UN the human impact of the US blockade imposed on Cuba and demanded an end to a siege that “is beginning to be measured in lives,” with Mexico’s representative Héctor Vasconcelos warning that unilateral restrictions cause deaths due to the lack of medical supplies.
“Brazil calls on the United Nations Security Council to end the 'madness of war' and lift the embargo on Cuba”
Vasconcelos said, “We defended then what we defend today, that it is up to the Cuban people and only to them to decide their destiny free of external pressures and impositions,” and he urged the immediate lifting of sanctions as contrary to international law.
The Express Tribune reported that the damage wrought by the embargo during March 2025 through February 2026 amounts to a record $8 billion, a seven percent increase over the same period one year earlier, and said the figures do not include the “extreme impact” of the fuel blockade imposed in February.
teleSUR English said the debate included warnings about prolonged blackouts, the paralysis of public transportation, failures in the distribution of drinking water, and difficulties in preserving food, while the European Union’s Permanent Observer to the UN, Stavros Lambrinidis, recognized the extraterritorial effect of the blockade.
