Cuba's power grid fails, leaving millions in the dark
Cubaʼs entire power grid crashed last week leaving its 10 million citizens without electricity. The breakdown highlights the nations crumbling infrastructure and economic troubles‚ worsened by fuel shortages and U.S sanctions
Cubas power system crashed on 10/13/24 (friday) leaving all its 10 million people without electricity. This event shows the poor state of the countrys infrastructure and economy.
The breakdown happened because Cubas power plants and grid are old and not well-kept. The country doesnt make much fuel‚ so it has to buy it from other places. But Cubaʼs friends like Venezuela‚ Russia and Mexico arent sending as much fuel as before. This made things worse when the biggest power plant broke down and bad weather stopped fuel ships from coming.
Cuba says U.S rules make it hard to buy fuel and fix things. The U.S says its not their fault. But U.S rules do make it tricky for Cuba to get money for fuel and parts. Also‚ many ships dont want to go to Cuba because of these rules.
Life in Cuba is very hard now. People dont have power for many hours each day‚ which causes lots of problems:
- No water in many homes
- Food going bad in fridges
- Not enough food‚ fuel‚ and medicine
- More mosquito illnesses
Many people are so unhappy theyʼre leaving Cuba. More people have left in the last 4 years than ever before.
The government wants to fix things by using more sun power. Theyʼre building 26 sun farms that should make about one-third of the power Cuba needs in 2 years. They also want to find more oil in Cuba.
This isnt the first time all of Cuba lost power. It happened about 2 years ago after a big storm (Hurricane Ian). That time‚ people went out to protest in many cities
The government is trying to turn the power back on‚ but fixing all the problems will take a long time
