The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

The U.S. Does Have a Hand in Cuban Power Outages

Oct 28, 2024

Cuba experienced a massive outage of its electrical system on October 18 and several days after, with at least partial power shortages still ongoing. The outage caused the government to shut down non-vital state services, public schools and businesses for days and is making life difficult for the population. Hurricanes Milton and Oscar have added to the problems the people of Cuba are facing.

The White House was quick to claim that the U.S. was not to blame for the blackouts. Hogwash! Sanctions imposed by the U.S. designating Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” as well as a number of other laws, have played a major role in creating the economic conditions leading to this outage.

Cuba’s electrical system largely uses oil or gas derived from oil as its main fuel source for running its power plants. It has been getting much of that oil from Venezuela, but those supplies have been reduced because of economic difficulties in Venezuela, which are due at least in part by U.S. sanctions on it. Though Russia and China have expressed support for Cuba, and had provided assistance to Cuba in the past, they have not been able to provide the oil Cuba needs. Hurricane Milton added physical obstacles to Cuba’s ability to receive oil shipments when it hit the island.

In addition, many of Cuba’s power plants are old and suffering from a lack of spare parts. This is at least in part connected with U.S. laws punishing shipping companies docking at Cuban ports and investors that might consider investing in Cuba. Any ship that docks at a Cuban port is not allowed to enter a U.S. port for six months afterward. Companies and individuals from countries other than the U.S. that invest in Cuba can be forced by U.S. courts to pay compensation to former owners of properties nationalized by the Cuban government after the Cuban revolution.

Problems like the recent power outage are connected to a more general economic crisis in Cuba, which are also linked to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Cuba’s tourism industry, which accounts for 10% of Cuba’s economy, has been hard hit. There were 4.7 million tourists who visited Cuba in 2018, but the Cuban government expects that only 2.7 million will have visited this year, a drop of 43%. The U.S. prohibits people who have visited Cuba from participating in its Visa Waiver Program due to its designation as a sponsor of state terrorism, causing many travelers to avoid visiting Cuba.

U.S. imperialism has attempted to punish the Cuban people for its revolution for many decades now. Having lost much of its support from other countries like Russia and China in recent years, the Cuban economy is facing a deeper crisis. The politicians of both parties and the wealthy ruling class they serve in the U.S. are not about to concern themselves with the suffering of the Cuban population that flows from the economic sanctions they continue to impose.