14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 7 March 2024 — Without much notice or publication of the schedule, long blackouts have returned to Havana. The Cuban capital, which for weeks had the privilege of electricity while the provinces sank into power outages of more than ten hours a day, has not managed to avoid the crisis caused by fuel shortages and the deterioration of the Island’s thermoelectric plants.
This Thursday, last summer’s events were repeated in the most populous city in the country. Outside a private store on Carlos III Avenue in Central Havana, a bored employee waited in the dark, trying to avoid the heat. Behind him, the name of Las Columnas (The Columns) was displayed on a counter, along with cell phone cases, charging cables, devices to measure the number of steps that are taken each day and some bluetooth speakers.
All the products for sale in the small business require a connection to electricity, at least to be charged. An electricity that the people of Havana are beginning to lack, even in neighborhoods that in previous years were “forgiven” from power cuts due to the presence of several hospital centers or an underground electricity system, so obsolete that the authorities themselves fear turning it off.
“I walked near the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital; the whole area was in the dark, and you couldn’t hear the power plant that sounds like a dragon; when it’s on you can hear it for several blocks,” a retiree told this newspaper. She was frustrated when trying to get her pension out of an ATM on nearby Belascoaín Street; it was out of service due to lack of power.
The famous La Cubana hardware store, on the corner of Reina and Lealdad streets, popularly known as Feíto and Cabezón, was also closed to the public due to the blackout. Despite selling its products in freely convertible currency (MLC), a modality designed for those who have income in foreign exchange, the premises lacks a generator that would allow it to continue operating in these circumstances.
The customers who arrived looked through the entrance windows with frustrated expressions, trying to spot the merchandise they had come to buy or if any employee dei
