Cuba says power plant successfully repaired after major blackout | Shakti news

A campaign of US pressure, including an oil embargo, has strained the Caribbean country’s aging energy infrastructure.

Cuban officials say repair teams earlier this week successfully repaired a large thermoelectric plant that was causing blackouts across the island, which is straining under sanctions imposed by the United States.

Felix Estrada Rodríguez, a top engineer at the Electric Union of Cuba, told state-owned media outlet Canal Caribe that the Antonio Guiteras plant is expected to resume operations by Saturday afternoon.

He explained that the speed of repairs was a result of difficult working conditions and safety concerns.

“It’s a confined space with high temperatures,” Estrada Rodriguez said.

A broken boiler caused the plant to shut down on Wednesday, leaving millions without electricity in the country’s western regions.

Widespread shutdowns have increased in recent months as the U.S. takes steps to further isolate Cuba and push the country’s energy system to its breaking point.

Following the kidnapping and imprisonment of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump moved to cut off the flow of oil and money between Cuba and the South American nation.

Then, on January 29, he issued an executive order threatening economic action against any country that supplies Cuba with oil.

The island’s aging energy grid is largely dependent on fossil fuels, although it has taken steps to increase its supply of alternative power sources.

China, for example, is helping Cuba develop its solar energy supply, with thousands of panels being exported to the island.

Still, the US oil embargo against Cuba has exacerbated the economic and humanitarian crisis on the island, which has struggled under a decades-long US trade embargo.

Pressure campaigning has increased since US President Donald Trump returned to power in 2025.

Trump has openly talked about overthrowing the Cuban government and tightened economic sanctions in an effort to worsen conditions on the island.

Trump said earlier this week that regime change in Havana was “a matter of time” as he accepted the threat of US military action to reshape Latin America.

On Saturday, Trump reiterated his threats toward Cuba at a summit of far-right Latin American leaders. He suggested that the island’s communist government was “in its last moments”.

“Cuba is at the end of the line. They’re at the end of the line. They have no money, they have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad administration that has been bad for a long time,” Trump said.

In the past, demonstrations have sprung up in Cuba in response to chronic blackouts, supply shortages and frustration with the Havana government, which has a record of repressing dissent.

Cuba’s Electric Union did not provide details on how many people remained without power Saturday, but it said about 1,000 megawatts of power was available. This is enough to meet less than half of Cuba’s current demand.

The government has announced a series of tough measures to conserve energy and protests have erupted since the latest blackout.