Cuba tells non-essential workers, students to stay home in latest blackout

By Dave Sherwood

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba closed schools and told non-essential workers to stay home on Friday as its electrical grid faltered following the failure of a major power plant, causing widespread blackouts across the crisis-ridden island.

Only six of the country's 15 oil-fired power plants are in operation, according to government reports, and a dire fuel shortage has made it impossible to run smaller clusters of diesel-fired generators that typically back up the system.

The predicament has hobbled the island's creaky electrical system and led to the largest blackouts since several nationwide grid collapses late last year left the entire nation of 10 million people in the dark, prompting scattered protests and unrest.

Dwindling oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico last year pushed the island's obsolete and struggling oil-fired power plants into full crisis.

The government said late on Thursday it would "suspend... teaching and work activities that are not essential under current conditions."

Basic services would remain, the government said.

Residents across the capital Havana, typically protected by the government from the worst of the blackouts, reported outages ranging from six to 10 hours this week. Provincial cities and smaller towns in the countryside reported outages of as much as 20 hours a day.

The blackouts increase anxiety in a population already stressed by widespread shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Upwards of one million Cubans have left the island since the COVID-19 pandemic, pressured by fast-deteriorating conditions.

Cuba blames the U.S. trade embargo and stiff sanctions implemented by the Trump administration for difficulties in maintaining its electrical grid and acquiring fuel and spare parts, a situation many on the island feel will only get worse.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month reversed last-second measures taken by his predecessor Joe Biden to lighten sanctions on Cuba.

Cuban officials said residents could expect a slight improvement in conditions through the weekend as fuel supply improved.

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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