Cuban officials have warned that blackouts on the island will increase significantly due to a lack of fuel, potentially worsening the country’s plight as it deals with food and medicine shortages.
Local governments have already begun announcing restrictions on power usage at state-run companies and other entities, including moves to postpone sporting events and university classes.
“We are not going to have the level of fuel we need or what we had in previous months,” the energy and mining minister, Vicente de la O Levy, told a national television broadcast late on Wednesday, alongside the country’s economy minister.
The officials suggested citizens could expect blackouts of up to eight to 10 hours a day outside Havana, where residents are usually spared power outages. They said the outages would begin by October.
The communist-run island has been mired in crisis and plagued by blackouts and shortages of food, medicine and fuel since the pandemic. Gross domestic product is 8% below 2020 levels
