• A major blackout left millions without power across Cuba, including Havana.
• The outage stems from a shutdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant.
• Fuel shortages from Venezuela, worsened by US sanctions, are at the core of the crisis.
• The blackout is one of several recent outages, highlighting Cuba's crumbling electric infrastructure.
• Public transport and essential services have been disrupted as a result of the power cuts.

A widespread blackout left millions in Cuba without power on March 4, affecting the capital Havana and the majority of the island's population. The national electricity company UNE reported that the outage, attributed to a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, disrupted services from Pinar del Río to Camaguey, intensifying an ongoing energy crisis exacerbated by diminishing oil supplies from Venezuela, significantly impacted by US pressure, including sanctions and threats to impose tariffs on oil suppliers to Cuba, as noted by the Reuters, India Times, Le Monde, and BBC.

Recent outages have been frequent due to the island's crumbling electric grid, which has caused power cuts lasting up to 20 hours daily in various regions. The latest blackout marks the second major outage in the western part of Cuba in a short period, bringing to light the dire state of electricity supply on the island. Crews have been mobilized to restore power, but reports indicated it might take up to 72 hours for full operations at the affected power plant to resume, highlighting the complex energy situation in Cuba, as reported by Reuters, India Times, Le Monde, and BBC.

Cuba heavily relies on fuel imports to generate electricity, and the recent political turmoil in Venezuela has severely affected its fuel supply. Leadership changes in Venezuela have resulted in a significant reduction in oil shipments to Cuba, which historically sourced around half of its fuel from there. The US's aggressive sanctions and military actions against suppliers have left the island struggling, and exacerbated fuel shortages have disrupted vital public services, including hospitals and transport, per information from Reuters, India Times, Le Monde, and BBC.