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Cuba’s power grid has been cut for the third time this month, leaving the country in the dark without electricity.
The cuts come as the communist government continues to struggle with a US-imposed oil blockade and deteriorating infrastructure.
That Cuba The Electric Union, which reports to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, on Saturday announced a total island-wide blackout without first providing a cause for the outage.
It later said that the blackout was caused by an unexpected failure in a generating unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric power plant in Camaguey province.
State electricity grid and utility operator Union Electrica said power went out at 6.32pm (10.32pm in the UK).
At 7am (11am UK time) Sunday, it was said on social media that microsystems – smaller closed circuits for essential services – were operational in all areas.
Work is underway to restore the remaining power lines. This is the second power outage in a week on the island, and the third this month.
Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, reported that regional and national power outages have become common in Cuba over the past two years, due to damage to aging infrastructure.
However, the government also blamed the Trump administration’s strict oil and fuel embargo in February.
Cuba produces nearly 40% of the fuel needed to power its economy. The country’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, said last week that the island had not received oil from foreign suppliers for three months.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were arrested by the US military in early January, leading to the halt of vital Cuban oil shipments from South America.
Photo: Reuters
The US also imposed a strict trade embargo on Cuba from 1962, a year after the failed CIA-sponsored invasion of the island in the Bay of Pigs.
Donald Trump extended the blockade by signing an executive order imposing trade tariffs on countries that export oil to Havana last month.
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The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said its experts condemned the action, and accused the US of “serious violations of international law and a grave threat to the democratic and just international order”.
On March 15, Trump claimed the US could do this “do whatever we have to do” in Cuba after its Iran war. His warning came a day after a rare outbreak of unrest against the Cuban government.
Videos on social media showed people throwing rocks through the windows of a building while shouting “freedom” in the background.
