Blackouts and protests as Cuba says fuel has ‘run out’

People look at a barricade set up by residents protesting against prolonged power outages in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

HAVANA, Cuba -- Cuba was hit by worsening power outages on Thursday as the island’s communist government said oil reserves had run out and rare protests broke out around the capital Havana.

Eastern Cuba was plunged Thursday into the latest of regular electricity shutdowns affecting the whole country, while people protested against power outages in neighbourhoods around Havana, in the west of the island.

Oil reserves sent by Russia have now “run out,” Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state television, describing the situation as “very tense.”

“The heat continues to rise, and the impact of the blockade is indeed causing us significant harm... because we are still not receiving fuel.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid on the condition that the assistance be distributed by the Catholic Church, bypassing the government.

“We are ready to hear the details of the proposal and how it would be implemented,” said Cuba’s top diplomat, Bruno Rodriguez, on social media.

A resident of San Miguel del Padron, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, told AFP that people had protested the power cuts by banging pots and pans on Wednesday evening.

Several other similar small protests were held in neighborhoods across the capital to express widespread frustration, according to accounts gathered by AFP.

“Turn on the lights!” shouted residents in Playa, a district in the western part of the capital.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday blamed a US-imposed “genocidal energy blockade” on Cuba for its grim energy shortages.

Data compiled by AFP showed prolonged blackouts and record generation shortfalls in recent days -- 65 percent of Cuban territory endured simultaneous blackouts on Tuesday.

“This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel,” Diaz-Canel said.

The island’s energy crisis worsened in January when the United States imposed an oil blockade on the island of 9.6 million people.

Since then, only one Russian tanker has reached Cuba, which is in the throes of economic stagnation and supply shortages.

Outages of more than 19 hours a day have hit Havana, while in several provinces, blackouts last for entire days.

Cuba’s electricity generation is sustained by a network of eight aging thermoelectric plants -- some in operation for over 40 years -- that suffer frequent breakdowns or must be shut down for maintenance cycles.

Cubans have endured seven nationwide blackouts since 2024, and fuel prices have soared.

U.S. President Donald Trump -- who since the start of the year has deposed Venezuela’s leftist leader but seen less success in a war on Iran -- has mused that Cuba could be next and that the United States could take over the island.