Cuba has not accepted oil shipments since early January under pressure from the United States, worsening the island’s humanitarian crisis.
listen to this article2 minutes
information
Published March 16, 2026
Cuba’s national power grid collapsed during the oil blockade imposed on the island nation by the United States.
Monday’s collapse left the entire country of about 10 million people without power, according to Cuba’s National Electric Union (UNE). The state-owned company said it was working to restore power supply.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
It added that it was investigating the cause of the “complete outage of the national power grid.”
Oil imports to Cuba have been suspended since January 9 amid a US pressure campaign.
Following the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro by US forces, the government of interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez has agreed to curb oil shipments to Cuba.
US President Donald Trump then threatened other countries, particularly Mexico, with sanctions if they supplied fuel to Mexico, which relies almost entirely on oil imports.
The regime has publicly said it seeks regime change in communist-led Cuba, which was under a decades-long U.S. embargo prior to its latest actions.
Citing SEG ship tracking data reviewed, Reuters reported that Cuba has accepted only two small ships carrying oil imports this year.
Earlier this month, two-thirds of the country, mainly in the central and western regions, were left without power for more than a day after the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the island’s largest, broke down.
The U.S. actions are exacerbating Cuba’s long-standing economic woes and creating a humanitarian crisis amid widespread shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
The situation has sparked rare social unrest on the island, with protesters setting fire to Communist Party offices over the weekend. Human rights groups have warned against any U.S. attempts to rally dissent by worsening living conditions for residents.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed last week that his government had met with the Trump administration.
President Trump has previously hinted at a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, but on Sunday said Cuba “hopes for a deal.”
Meanwhile, his top officials have vowed to continue taking a militaristic approach to Latin America, even as the United States fights a war against Iran alongside Israel.
“We’ll either get a deal soon or do whatever we have to do,” Trump said.
