Cuba’s power grid collapses leaving it without electricity for the 3rd time this month

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s power grid collapsed Saturday leaving the country without electricity for a third time in March as the communist government battles with a decaying infrastructure and a U.S.-imposed oil blockade.

The Cuban Electric Union, which reports to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, announced a total blackout across the island without initially giving a cause for the outage.

The union later said the blackout was caused by an unexpected failure of a generating unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province.

“From that moment, a cascading effect occurred in the machines that were online,” said a report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which activated “micro-islands” of generating units to provide power to vital centers, hospitals and water systems.

Authorities said they were working to restore power.

Power outages, whether nationwide or regional, have become relatively common in the last two years due to breakdowns in the aging infrastructure. The breakdowns are compounded by daily blackouts of up to 12 hours caused by fuel shortages, which also destabilize the system.

The last nationwide blackout occurred on Monday. Saturday's outage was the second in the past week and the third in March.

The blackouts have a significant impact on the population, whose lives are disrupted by reduced work hours, lack of electricity for cooking and food spoilage when refrigerators stop working, among many other consequences. In some cases, hospitals have canceled surgeries.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said the island has not received oil from foreign suppliers for three months. Cuba produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs to power its economy.

Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years. But the government has also blamed the outages on a U.S. energy blockade after U.S. President Donald Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The Trump administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump also has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Another reason Cuba has been struggling with dwindling oil is the removal of Venezuela’s leader, which halted critical petroleum shipments from the nation that had been a steadfast ally to Havana.

Trump has for months suggested Cuba’s government is on the verge of collapse. After a previous time Cuba’s electric grid collapsed, Trump told reporters he believed he’d soon have “the honor of taking Cuba.”

Children look at their phones while sitting on the Malecón wall during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk on a street in the dark during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People spend the night in the dark on the Malecon during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People are seen waiting in a car in the dark during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:

The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition began Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.

This year's 247 spellers represent 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries. They competed in preliminary rounds on May 26, quarterfinals and semifinals are happening today, and finals tomorrow, with the winner taking the unofficial crown of top speller in the English language. The champion's haul includes a trophy and more than $52,000 in cash and prizes.

After the preliminary rounds on Tuesday, 167 were left, and that field was cut to 95 quarterfinalists after a written spelling and vocabulary test.

The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader and got a perfect score on the written test. Even if he falls short this year, he has two years of eligibility left.

Three other potential contenders had perfect test scores:

— Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He has dominated the bee circuit in the past year, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.

— Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.

— Esha Marupudi, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who also tied for seventh last year.

Spellers can compete through the eighth grade, and this year's competitors range in age from 9 to 15. Faizan Zaki won last year's bee and will return in a ceremonial role; past champions are not allowed to compete again and last year's runner-up aged out of the competition. The bee moved this year to a new venue, Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, after more than a decade at a convention center just outside the city in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Mina Kimes, an NFL analyst for ESPN and the recent “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion, is serving as the television host, the bee's first celebrity host since LeVar Burton in 2022.

READ AP'S LATEST COVERAGE

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HOW TO WATCH

The preliminary rounds will air on Scripps Sports Network from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 26. The quarterfinals will air on Scripps Sports from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on May 27, with the semifinals airing live on Scripps Sports from 2:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. and on tape-delay on ION from 8 p.m.-10 p.m. The finals will air on ION on May 28 from 8 p.m.-10 p.m. The preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will also be streamed on spellingbee.com.

FIND SPELLERS NEAR YOU

You can view competitor bios on the Scripps National Spelling Bee site and filter by age, grade, state and finalist type.

Localize It is a resource produced regularly by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to the Local News Success team at localizeit@ap.org. View guides published in the last 30 days here.

Koen Harvey, 14, of Tsaile, Ariz., spells his word during the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at DAR Constitution Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Jayden Le, 13, of Oklahoma City, Okla., reacts after spelling his word correct during the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at DAR Constitution Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Yohaan Damani, 13, of Downingtown, Pa., celebrates after providing a correct answer during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Shrey Parikh, 14, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., competes during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)