Cuba plunges into darkness again as grid suffers new nationwide blackout

Cuba's state-owned grid operator said late Sunday that the national electricity system had collapsed again, leaving much of the island without power. Officials said the failure of several aging thermal plants triggered the outage.

Cuba has suffered repeated total blackouts over the past two years as fuel shortages, worsened by the long-standing U.S. embargo, have left power stations unable to keep enough generators running. Havana residents described spending the night without air conditioning or refrigeration in sweltering summer heat.

Government engineers said crews were working to restore power district by district, but similar restoration efforts after earlier blackouts have taken days. The energy crisis has become one of the most visible sources of public frustration on the island, fueling occasional street protests over shortages.