Cuba’s national electrical grid suffered a complete collapse Monday, plunging all 11 million residents into darkness, as President Donald Trump declared he expects to have the “honor of taking Cuba” in some form.
“Whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
The blackout — the island’s third major outage in four months — traces directly to a US oil blockade that has cut off the island’s fuel supply since early January. After American forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba stopped overnight.
Venezuela had supplied roughly half the island’s needs. Trump then signed Executive Order 14380 on January 29, authorizing tariffs on any country that supplies oil to Cuba, pushing Mexico and other alternative suppliers to stand down. Díaz-Canel confirmed last week that no shipments had arrived in more than three months.
Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said its operating units showed no technical failures at the moment of collapse, pointing to fuel starvation rather than mechanical failure as the cause.
William LeoGrande, a Cuba expert at American University, told NPR: “The technicians working on the grid are magicians to keep it running at all given the shape that it’s in.”
The humanitarian toll has accumulated steadily. Hospitals have postponed tens of thousands of surgeries. Schools are closed. Garbage trucks sit idle for lack of fuel. Anti-government protests erupted in the central city of Morón on Saturday, where crowds attacked and set fire to a Communist Party office.
The UN has warned the crisis threatens Cuba’s food supply and hospital systems.
“Officials in the US government must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said Monday.
Despite the pressure, both sides have confirmed back-channel negotiations are underway. Trump said Sunday his administration would “pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do.”
Read: Trump Targets Cuba for Regime Change, Signals Imminent Action After Iran Conflict
The Trump administration has made regime change an explicit goal, pushing for Díaz-Canel to leave power. Cuba has rejected the US framing of the blockade as a national security necessity, calling it economic warfare against civilians.
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