Residents of Los Mangos neighborhood in Matanzas have been enduring over 72 continuous hours without electricity, receiving merely two hours of power throughout this period. This situation has been highlighted on social media by journalist and activist Yirmara Torres Hernández.
Torres Hernández has been consistently documenting the electrical collapse in her area via Facebook. Her latest update reported 53 hours without electricity in Los Mangos with the phrase "And we carry on," while on June 13, she had already warned: "Still in the dark, 67 hours."
Matanzas: The Epicenter of Cuba's Energy Crisis
Matanzas has become the hardest-hit province by Cuba's energy crisis in 2026. On June 9, residents of circuit 1456—which includes Calzada de San Luis, Parque Maceo, and La Jaiba—reported up to 85 consecutive hours without service, a record that underscores the extent of the disaster.
In Ceiba Mocha, residents had been without electricity for an entire week by June 13, while in Carlos Rojas, outages exceeded 48 hours with just an hour and a half of restored service.
Widespread Electrical Outages and System Collapse
The municipality of Matanzas had more than 200 pending repair reports as of June 12, showing the complete saturation of the provincial electrical service system.
The crisis isn't limited to Matanzas. On Tuesday, the Electric Union reported an availability of just 970 MW against a demand of 2,525 MW, with 1,555 MW affected at six in the morning and a projected 2,000 MW deficit during peak evening hours.
Nationwide Impact and Structural Issues
The situation worsened on June 15 when the CTE Guiteras went offline due to a boiler leak, adding to the 106 distributed generation plants shut down due to fuel shortages, representing 890 MW unavailable.
Santiago de Cuba also reorganized its blackouts into nine blocks on Tuesday, with just one or two hours of electricity daily per residential area, a scenario mirrored across much of the country.
This crisis is neither new nor temporary. Since May 2024, the Matanzas Electric Company has been scheduling cycles of two hours of light followed by six hours of blackout, confirming that the deterioration is structural and has deepened without a solution in sight.
One Cuban summed up the accumulated despair with a phrase circulating on social media: "Here they don’t even give explanations anymore, fifty, eighty, however many hours without power."
Understanding Cuba's Energy Crisis in Matanzas
What is causing the prolonged power outages in Matanzas?
The extended power outages in Matanzas are primarily due to a significant shortfall in electricity generation capacity versus demand, compounded by fuel shortages and infrastructure deterioration.
How are residents coping with the electricity crisis in Matanzas?
Residents are using social media to voice their frustrations and document the ongoing crisis, while dealing with limited electricity availability by adjusting their daily routines accordingly.
Is there a solution in sight for the energy crisis affecting Matanzas?
Currently, no immediate solution is visible as the crisis is rooted in structural issues that have been worsening over time, with no effective measures from the authorities to address the underlying problems.