Havana protests swell as power outages persist ahead of Communist Party plenum

Residents across Havana took to the streets this week to denounce prolonged electricity blackouts. In central Havana, demonstrators gathered at the intersection of Manrique and Reina streets, banging pots and chanting for light while police vehicles arrived. A separate nighttime protest in the El Hueco neighborhood showed residents confronting a 36‑hour outage, with a fire burning on a street and calls for the government’s removal.

The energy crisis has left the island with a severe supply deficit — on a recent morning the grid supplied only 970 MW against a demand of 2,525 MW, while a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant added to the shortfall. Power cuts of 12‑22 hours per day have become routine in Havana, with some provinces enduring over 48 hours without electricity.

These demonstrations coincide with an Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Communist Party of Cuba, where officials plan to discuss more than 20 economic reforms, including cutting ministries, changing the subsidy system and addressing the energy sector. Authorities have reported arrests linked to the protests, and the wave of pot‑banging rallies marks the highest level of unrest since the 2021 nationwide protests.