Cubans rendered powerless as outages persist and tensions with US escalate
The smell of sulfur hits hard in this coastal town that produces petroleum and is home to one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants. Yet, even as the plant cranks back to life, residents remain in the dark, surrounded by energy sources they cannot use. As tensions deepen between Cuba and the U.S. after it attacked Venezuela and disrupted oil shipments, so have the woes of Santa Cruz del Norte.
People in this town east of Havana are plunged into darkness daily and forced to cook with coal and firewood, but not everyone can afford this new reality. Kenia Montoya said she recently ripped the wooden door off her bathroom in the crumbling cinderblock home that she shares with her children because she needed firewood, and they needed to eat.
“Things are getting worse for us now,” she said. “They don’t supply us with petroleum. They don’t supply us with food. Where does that leave us, then?” A faded purple sheet now hangs over their bathroom. Nearby, only a handful of coal remains in a small bag. The 50-year-old mother doesn’t know how she’ll cook once the coal runs out because supplies in the region have dwindled.
It’s one of many uncertainties gripping towns like this one across Cuba after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. “Well, it’s a failed nation now,” Trump said this week. “And they’re not getting any money from Venezuela, and they’re not getting any money from anywhere.”
Near the main entrance to Santa Cruz del Norte, a sprawling mural is emblazoned with the following message in all caps: “NO ONE GIVES UP HERE. LONG LIVE A FREE CUBA.”But people wonder how long they can hold out. The island’s crisis is deepening: severe blackouts, soaring prices and a shortage of basic goods.
Meanwhile, the Cuban government remains mum over its oil reserves, offering no word on whether Russia or anyone else would increase their shipments after oil supplies from Venezuela were disrupted when the U.S. attacked and arrested its president in early January. Cuban officials recently lauded a phone call they had with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, although they did not share details. Meanwhile, Mexico has pledged to send humanitarian aid, including food, after Trump said he asked that it suspend oil shipments to the island.
Many in Santa Cruz del Norte feel the worst is yet to come. “With all those tariffs they’re going to impose on countries, no oil will come in, and how are we going to live?” said Gladys Delgado. The 67-year-old had cracked open her front door on a recent chilly afternoon to get some fresh air as she sewed small, colorful rugs made of clothing scraps to make extra cash because her pension is only $6 a month.
A couple of houses down, Minorkys Hoyos dropped a handful of cassava cubes into an old pot she filled with water from a barrel and placed it over a tiny, makeshift grill inside her home. “You live with what you have,” she said, noting she had no other food available at that moment.
The few rechargeable items that used to light her small, disheveled home have broken down, and she began to bump into things until a neighbor gifted her an improvised lantern made with fuel and a reused baby food jar. “When it’s dark, I don’t see,” said the 53-year-old diabetic.
