Cuba’s lights begin to return, but its crisis is far from over

Power supply is slowly resuming in Havana, but the country’s deeper crisis in relations with the US is endemic, long-term.

The traffic lights are finally back on in Havana, but most of Cuba is still in the dark.

Cuba’s national power grid collapsed yet again on Monday, and there was no electricity supply across the country for most of Tuesday. Power is slowly being restored in the capital, but most parts of the country still do not have any supply, Al Jazeera’s Ed Augustin reported from Havana on Tuesday.

Power cuts started in Cuba back in 2019, when the first Trump administration started hammering the country with so-called maximum-pressure sanctions.

They aimed to gouge the country’s economy of billions of dollars a year, and, as a result, the communist government had to drastically cut fuel imports because it simply did not have the cash.

But now, since the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the United States has upped the ante once again.

Since late January, the Trump administration has imposed a total oil blockade of the island, meaning that for almost three months, no oil has come into the country.

Unsurprisingly, in Cuba, which is heavily dependent on oil to generate electricity, it means that power cuts are becoming more frequent and longer.

It has been confirmed by the two governments, the two old foes, that they are again locking horns and negotiating.

On Monday, Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga announced that Cuban nationals living abroad, including in places like Miami in the US state of Florida, will soon be allowed to directly invest in their homeland and even own businesses in Cuba.

That is a pro-market reform; there have been many of those in recent years, but what is interesting about this is how well it maps onto what Trump has been repeatedly saying in recent weeks – that any deal would have to be great for the Cuban-American community in Florida.

“We do not know the details of the negotiations,” Augustin reported.

“They seem to be focused largely on economic reforms, but what I can tell you is that with the US oil blockade driving down living standards so low right now, most people on this island are in favour of some sort of agreement.”