March 17, New Delhi: Cuba's national power grid collapsed on Monday, leaving approximately 10 million people without electricity amidst a U.S. oil embargo on Cuba.
The grid operator, Union Nacional Electrica de Cuba, stated that the blackout was caused by a "complete shutdown of the national grid" and confirmed that work had begun to restore electricity. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, instead pointing to a possible transmission problem, and began restoring small clusters of circuits, or microsystems, across the country.
The blackout follows a series of widespread outages that have previously lasted hours or days, sparking violent protests in Cuba. U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to "take" Cuba as the country plunged into darkness, citing the crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington, which included cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments and threatening tariffs on nations supplying oil to Cuba.
Meanwhile, Cuba announced on Friday that it had entered into talks with the U.S. in the hope of defusing the crisis. Trump reiterated that he believes he will have the "honor" of taking Cuba.