For months now Cuba has been enduring apagones — prolonged blackouts that throw entire communities into darkness and force families to live on the edge of crisis. It’s become part of a grim routine: neighborhoods falling dark as the sun sets, cities silenced by the hum of generators in hospitals, and people waiting with practiced patience for the lights to flicker back on. With Cuba’s energy crisis reaching one of its worst points in decades, the suffering on this island — isolated by the U.S. blockade — is urgent. Yet, it’s all too easily overshadowed by the horrors unfolding in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond.

A Crisis That Touches Every Part of Life

In every town, city and village in Cuba, the blackouts have become unavoidable. Hospitals rely on backup power just to keep life-saving machines running. Families scramble to keep food fresh, save up for propane stoves, and stretch limited budgets for essentials that can survive without refrigeration. Cuba’s power infrastructure is in a state of dire deterioration. Nearly 95% of the island’s thermal power plants are more than 40 years old, many nearing the half-century mark. The Ministry of Energy and Mines reports that these plants, which still carry the Soviet blueprint of a bygone era, are well beyond their intended lifespan, struggling to meet the needs of an entire nation.

For most Cubans these blackouts aren’t just a power issue; they reshape the very rhythm of daily life. What happens when the blackout comes is familiar by now — food spoils, the streets are empty, and parents watch their children’s studies falter as schools, underpowered and undersupplied, do the best they can. Businesses large and small are forced to cut hours or temporarily close. Entire communities have learned to bend to the demands of an aging and crumbling energy grid, one that they themselves cannot fix, modernize or even maintain without external support — support the U.S. blockade prevents them from accessing.

Why Cuba’s Energy Crisis is a Blockade Crisis

The blockade’s reach is everywhere and unavoidable. With severe sanctions imposed during the Trump administration still in place and an increasingly tight blockade under Biden, the U.S. restricts Cuba from importing the technology and resources needed to upgrade or replace this outdated infrastructure. Cuba has limited access to energy parts, fuel and financing for any renewable-energy projects. And foreign companies face U.S. secondary sanctions if they attempt to trade with Cuba, so even sympathetic nations are hesitant.

Cuba’s grid relies heavily on outdated thermal plants, forced to churn on dwindling resources in a country that has abundant potential for renewable energy. Solar, wind and hydro projects would be transformative, but with limited financing and blocked access to suppliers, sustainable options remain only an idea for the distant future. That leaves Cubans facing not only unreliable power but also rising pollution from an overworked system that can barely hold itself together.

The Daily Impact on Cuban Lives

Imagine working in a hospital where power flickers off suddenly, with backup generators only able to support the most critical areas. Or try raising children who must study by dim candlelight, their schools periodically emptied by unbearable heat or power outages that make learning impossible. Small-business owners, already balancing tight margins, are forced to cut hours, close early or sit helplessly as perishable goods spoil in their powerless refrigerators. This is Cuba’s reality, as the blockade continues to prevent even basic repairs.

For Cuban families these apagones aren’t mere inconveniences; they are disruptions that compound each day. When food spoils, it’s more than a meal lost — it’s a financial burden and a source of anxiety, especially for a population already facing severe shortages in food and medical supplies. Medications requiring refrigeration, like insulin, are at constant risk of spoiling. Teachers and healthcare workers, stretched thin by the island’s myriad economic challenges, are now forced to perform their work without the basic tools that electricity provides.

Cuban resilience is legendary, but this level of deprivation takes a toll. Morale wanes when the basic elements of stability are stripped away by policies far beyond the Cuban people’s control. Life has a different cadence under the weight of daily power outages. People find ways to adapt, of course; they always have. But the blockade creates a forced hardship that bleeds the island of its potential and denies its people the chance to make even modest improvements.

Lifting the Blockade: A Humanitarian Necessity

The blockade was designed to isolate and pressure the Cuban government, but in reality it is Cuban families who pay the price. After 62 years this policy has failed to achieve its stated objectives and instead has become an instrument of daily suffering for millions. Ending, or at least easing, the blockade could help Cuba access the resources it needs to repair and renew its energy grid, reducing the cycle of blackouts that impacts every aspect of life.

Ending the blockade isn’t about making a political statement — it’s a humanitarian necessity. It’s about allowing Cuban hospitals to operate with reliable power and enabling children to learn in classrooms with light and fresh air. It’s about ensuring that food doesn’t spoil and that families aren’t forced to sacrifice nutrition due to power outages. Lifting the blockade would open the door for Cuba to access foreign investment, purchase energy supplies and begin building sustainable power solutions. Cuba could move away from dependence on its aged, fuel-hungry grid and toward cleaner renewable-energy sources — if only it had the freedom to do so.

A Call for Solidarity

As events in Gaza and Lebanon grab international attention, it’s natural to focus on the most immediate crises. But Cuba, a neighbor to the United States, is enduring a crisis of its own, with people who live in conditions no less deserving of our attention. Ending the blockade is the first step toward empowering Cuban society to recover. The blockade is outdated, punitive, and ultimately counterproductive — it isolates Cuba from solutions that would bring relief to millions of people.

In moments like these solidarity isn’t just a word. It’s a recognition that the right to a stable, dignified life transcends political borders. Lifting the blockade is about giving the Cuban people the chance to build a future, to harness their own strengths without an external hand holding them back. It’s time to see the crisis in Cuba for what it is: an urgent need for change that will allow the Cuban people to live without the constant shadow of apagones and to rebuild their society with dignity and resilience.

Danny Valdes is the co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Cuba Solidarity Working Group. He  is a first-generation Cuban American who grew up in South Florida and lives in New York City. He wrote about returning to Cuba for the first time in the cover story for the February 2024 print edition of The Indypendent.  

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