Cuba restores power after blackout as oil crisis deepens

CUBA'S power grid was restored at the weekend, officials said, a day after the second nationwide blackout in a week as the crisis-hit island struggles under a US oil blockade.

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Two-thirds of Havana had power again in the afternoon, the capital’s electricity company said, a day after the energy ministry reported a “total disconnection” of the national electric system in the country of 9.6 million people.

“Thanks to the efforts of our electrical workers, the SEN (National Electric System) was restored,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on X late Sunday.

Authorities cautioned, however, that demand would still exceed supply.

The outage comes as Cuba's communist government has faced growing pressure from US President Donald Trump, who imposed the de facto oil blockade in January and mused this past week about “taking” the Caribbean island.

A top Cuban diplomat said the country’s military was “preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression.”