The energy crisis in Cuba reached a critical point after the government publicly acknowledged that the country depleted its fuel reserves. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted that the island no longer has enough diesel or fuel oil to sustain the national electrical system, which threatens to cause more extensive and frequent blackouts throughout the country.

“We have absolutely no fuel oil, absolutely no diesel,” Dela O Levy declared during a television appearance. According to the official, in Havana The power cuts already exceed “20 or 22 hours a day”, while the service can be restored for just one or two hours before being interrupted.

The situation worsened after the depletion of a shipment of 100,000 tons of oil sent by Russia at the end of March, sum nistro that had allowed a brief stabilization of the Cuban electrical system. “Russian oil is already sold out,” the minister confirmed.

According to official estimates, Cuba produces around 40,000 barrels of oil daily, but consume close 100,000 barrel them a day, which has historically depended on imports from Venezuela and Mexico to cover the difference.

However, shipments from Venezuela have stopped since January 2026 and Mexican supplies have also decreased considerably. reports attribute this fall to the tightening of the sanctions of the United States against countries and companies that trade fuel with the island.

The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, blamed Washington directly for the deterioration of the situation. “This dramatic aggravation it has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country”, he wrote on the social network X recently.

Despite this, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, rejected that version and stated that the true cause is the lack of economic resources. "The reason why they don't have oil is because they don't have money to pay for it," he declared in an interview with The New York Times.

The deterioration of the electricity system already caused protests in different areas of Havana and other Cuban cities. Residents took out to the streets banging pots and blocking roads to demand the restoration of electricity.

It is worth remembering that in addition to the oil shortage, the national electrical grid suffered a “partial collapse” in several regions in the eastern part of the country, motivated by decades-old obsolete infrastructure and lack of maintenance.