Cuba imports most of the fuel that runs its grid, and for years that fuel came from Venezuela. After US forces removed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January and Washington moved to block tankers bound for the island, that supply was cut. The result has been nationwide blackouts — the grid collapsed entirely in March — alongside fuel and food shortages, uncollected refuse, and a health sector that state media says is rationing dialysis and running nutrition programmes far under capacity.
The pressure is deliberate: US officials have described a “maximum pressure” strategy aimed at the island's government, extending in June to payment-system restrictions intended to choke the tourism revenue Havana depends on. Foreign travel to Cuba has fallen by roughly 58 per cent. The government blames the US “blockade”; Washington blames Havana's governance. For eleven million people living between the two positions, daily life has become an ordeal conducted largely in the dark — and largely unwatched.
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CNN — Cuba is going dark under US pressure
NPR — Cuba's power grid collapses and plunges eastern provinces into a major blackout
Location: Havana, Cuba — 23.11° N, 82.37° W