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Power

Cuba Plunged Into an Island Wide Blackout As Power Grid Fails (npr.org) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the lights-out dept.
Cuba's power grid failed on Friday, leaving 10 million people without electricity. NPR reports: One of the country's largest power plants, the Antonio Guiteras power plant in the western province of Matanzas, failed shortly before midday on Friday. The failure prompted a total breakdown of Cuba's electrical system. The power outage comes after days of rolling blackouts. Cuba's prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, blamed the problem on deteriorating infrastructure and fuel shortages exacerbated by Hurricane Milton, which has made it difficult for fuel deliveries to reach the island.

The prime minister made an address on state television on Thursday evening and said the government would prioritize providing electricity to residential areas and promised shipments of fuel would arrive on the island in the coming days. Cuban officials have not indicated a timeline for when the power grid will be operational again. The massive blackout is a new low in a country that has already been dealing with a deepening economic crisis and widespread food shortages.
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Cuba Plunged Into an Island Wide Blackout As Power Grid Fails More

Cuba Plunged Into an Island Wide Blackout As Power Grid Fails

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  • easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @04:50PM (#64875671)

    USA should lift sanctions, trade and tourism would fix Cuba's economy in a New York minute.

    Some dinosaurs living in the past keep wailing every time the idea is floated, their ridiculous objections don't apply now in 21st century.

    • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:01PM (#64875685)

      Yes, I agree. But the GOP wants to keep control of Florida. That matters to them more.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 )
      The reason those sanctions were imposed were for among other reasons the country nationalizing American owned assets in the country. Are they going to return what was taken? I would not be at all surprised if much of it has been reduced to worthlessness over the decades, but unless Cuba were to make considerable concessions about implementing democratic reforms and ensuring property rights for its people and Americans who would do business there, I don't see any reason why we should trade with them unless y

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Exactly. People complain about US trade with Cuba, but would you open a business there when it can be arbitrarily seized without any due process or compensation what-so-ever?

      • Only an American could be such a complete, utter hypocrite as to comment on another country's need for political or economic reform, and returning stolen assets to the victims of the theft. Is American history no longer taught in American schools?

        • Only an American could be such a complete, utter hypocrite as to comment on another country's need for political or economic reform, and returning stolen assets to the victims of the theft. Is American history no longer taught in American schools?

          Considering all those illegal immigrants who came to this continent were from Europe, guess where this idea comes from?

        • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:4, Insightful)

          by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @07:25PM (#64876023) Homepage

          Exactly. Wonder when the USA will pay reparations to descendants of former slaves?

        • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:4, Informative)

          by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @07:56PM (#64876095)

          Only an American could be such a complete, utter hypocrite as to comment on another country's need for political or economic reform, and returning stolen assets to the victims of the theft. Is American history no longer taught in American schools?

          Modded down to zero - wow. I guess this is a good time for a reminder that mod points are not for dragging down posts just because you disagree with them.

          America's fortune was built on a foundation of stolen land, as well as stolen people forced into slavery. That's a simple and verifiable fact, and pointing it out in the context of this discussion is entirely on-point.

          BTW, my country was built on stolen land and broken promises too, and I don't try to silence those who point it out.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        So when is the US going to return the money that it's stolen from Venezuela and Russia recently? Or from Cuba, Haiti, China, and a slew of other countries over time? Maybe return Texas to Mexico? The US is one of the largest thieves around, and when we aren't thieving ourselves we're aiding other thieves to loot their countries (we even flew Marcos' tons of gold stolen from their reserve bank out of the Philippines on Air Force planes and delivered it to Hawaii for them no charge).

      • ... going to return what was taken?

        Yes, let's forget that US's lapdog, Batista, stole those assets for the benefit of his 'boyfriend', USA: The behaviour was borderline sexual. It seems the USA likes homosexuals when they are doting, rich, criminals.

        ... getting ripped off.

        Yep, that's why the USA has true caller-Id., truth-in-advertising, and a lack of hidden fees in telephone, medical and insurance services: Wait a minute...

        ... very repressive.

        Exactly, what is this repression? I can't find any articles of that, possibly because, to throw you a bone, the truth about Cuba is censor

      • "government that is still otherwise very repressive." Kind of like what Trump is proposing for US citizens. 'You are either MAGA or expect the US military to point their guns at you'. Nevermind all of the historical oppression. The hypocrisy is so fucking off the charts, it's unreal. Yeah, maybe Cuba won't live up to to the higher standards than we set for ourselves as we sit on our sky high horse sneering down on them. But Cuba having real economic growth and real hope for their future will whittle away an

      • There never were American owned assets.
        It was MAFIA owned, stupid dumb ass.

        The whole revolution and other things in Cuba happened because the MAFIA owned everything and was a dictatorship. Killing people every day.

        And you think Communism is worse than being suppress/ruled by a MAFIA?

        Get a damn brain check.

      • "American owned assets in the country. Are they going to return what was taken? I would not be at all surprised if much of it has been reduced to worthlessness over the decades, " Spilled milk, time to get over it. The US wasn't just some sweet poor innocent grandma getting her purse stolen either.
      • Lift the sanctions, and let's see how their country and economy evolves. What do we have to lose? Heck, we might even get some good PR out of it. And stop with that "Democracy" BS, we don't even get to elect our president. We are at the mercy of the 538 electors, the house of representatives (Elects the president if there is no clear majority on the electoral vote), and the senate(Elects VP if there was no clear majority on the electoral vote), as has been proven already in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.

        • they could get more votes with the electoral college system, by counting the slaves as part of the regular population when assigning electors).

          Without changing the US Constitution, the National Popular Vote Compact [nationalpopularvote.com] promises a way to effectively nullify the Electoral College. It is only a matter of time before it happens and it can't happen soon enough.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        European countries lost a lot of assets when colonialism started to end. It was wrong to do it in the first place, so sanctions were not the right response.

      • Wasn't part of the reason(at least) for the rebellion that the big companies/ US government was supporting Batista who made a coup to take power in Cuba?

        It seems US has been meddling in Cuba one way or another for a very long time before Castro got into power.

        Maybe US should pay Cuba for all the shit they created in Cuba, with many made poor and dead.

        Or we can all call it even and start from scratch - by returning Guantanamo Bay back to Cuba first?

        Wiki has a very nice summary.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mspohr ( 589790 )

        Nobody is going to get anything back.
        The rich Cubans have abandoned their "assets" and are now just focused on destroying Cuba from their prosperity in Florida.

    • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:4, Informative)

      by javaman235 ( 461502 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:07PM (#64875701)

      That or go to China and beg for renewable tech. Basically it looks like this is about their inability to keep their Fossil Fuel power plants running due to trade embargo. People in that part of the world are in peril when the summer heat comes with no AC. They need to be digging deep holes, getting the greenhouses climate controlled passively, getting the nano particle paint for cooling, etc. Same as people in the US southeast, but the Caribbean people are in greater present danger.

    • I truly don't understand how "Trump Havana Hotel and Casino" doesn't have more appeal to him than neocon saber rattling.

      Maybe Musk will buy it to get the FAA and California Coastal Commission off his ass.

      I once had a part in Guys and Dolls, and it never made sense to an 80's kid how 50's kids looked at Cuba.

      What a damn shame.

      • I truly don't understand how "Trump Havana Hotel and Casino" doesn't have more appeal to him than neocon saber rattling.

        Lansky and Siegel tried that and then Castro just seized it. Why bother investing there when there's no rule of law?

      • I truly don't understand how "Trump Havana Hotel and Casino" doesn't have more appeal to him than neocon saber rattling.

        If he can't get another failing casino built in Moscow with the help of his Russian handler, why bother with Cuba?

      • Cuba is still under sanctions because a lot of Cuban refugees (and relatives) in Florida (an important swing state) will vote against a president who changes it. They want democracy.

    • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by deKernel ( 65640 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:23PM (#64875731)

      I just love how that little island that trades with every other country on this planet, but still is a 3rd-world shit-show. However, if they started trading with us, that people believe it will turn back into that magical paradise. The only way that island will return is if the citizens suffer enough to realize they need to physically get rid of the Communists and nothing short means they will eventually return to the shit-show they have now. Sorry for being a hard-ass, but that is the reality.

      • Don’t disagree with this, butyou underestimate the economic impact of being locked out of the US market. Take a look at GDP by country on Wikipedia. Ignoring China (which isn’t big on importing stuff), the US has an economy nearly SEVEN times bigger than the next best country. Every country in spitting distance of the US relies on export to their market for a massive amount of their economy. Imagine if Canada or Mexico were locked out of exporting to the US - they’d be nearly destroyed. I
        • I’ll add the greatest aspect of exporting to the US is when you send them goods they pay you in US dollars. Not only are those safe and good with any other trading partner, if you trade them back to your home currency you get one hell of a multiplier, which is why most countries suppress the value of their currency to the greenback (especially China).

          • Where is this modeled in mainstream economics, where arbitrage is assumed to minimize the cross-currency basis, and whole important equations like the fair pricing model of derivatives depend on this Covered Interest Parity assumption?

            But if that multiplier you mention exists, then their formulas show derivative prices can go negative and that makes their assumptions about the rationality of prices very, very suspect?

            In short why do we listen to economists any more than we listen to theologists?

      • ... get rid of the Communists ...

        Like happened in China, right? Economic leverage from US money forced change in that communist country, didn't it?

        Cuba is a shit-show, because that part of the world doesn't have a lot of resources. When the rest of world rushed to buy China's goods or Vietnam's good, the USA dropped its principles, with haste and silence. No-one helps Cuba, allowing the USA to continue a 65 year-long tantrum.

        While the Caribbean was settled for the farming of sugar, islands are not suitable for mechanized agriculture

      • I just love how that little island that trades with every other country on this planet, but still is a 3rd-world shit-show. However, if they started trading with us, that people believe it will turn back into that magical paradise.

        There is a pretty big effect based on location in how trading helps stimulate economic growth. Who near the USA is a rich western trading partner? The closest is on the other side of the Atlantic. You see the same thing with Brexit, everyone promised a global Britain able to trade with whomever, but the reality is your closest customers are a stones throw across the channel and that has resulted in a massive decline across many industries in the UK. You don't just interlink a complex supply chain with Green

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        American sanctions reach far. Look at that Huawei exec who was arrested in Canada for crimes that were alleged by the US to have happened in other countries, simply because the transaction involved USD.

        But hey, if the sanctions aren't what is causing Cuba's problems, why not lift them? Then everyone can see that socialism doesn't work, even when given every opportunity. Ignore Europe, you could cite Cuba every time it comes up!

    • Being good communists they should shoot the grid for counter-revolutionary activities. That will fix it.

      I'm sure the Party elite have all the electrical power they want. The Proletariat is doubtlessly enjoying their equity.

    • Re:easy fix for Cuba's economy (Score:5, Informative)

      by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:57PM (#64875817) Homepage

      My ex's grandparents were survivors of the Cuban revolution. Their parents, brothers, and sisters were not.

      You can imagine that they had some strong feelings about making nice with the Cuban government. Their children and grandchildren may not care as much, but they did grow up listening to horror stories. There are also a lot of Cuban refugees who have escaped to the USA. They have opinions that are less than favorable to the Cuban government.

      You will not convince them that we should all just let bygones be bygones and get along. You need to present a compelling benefit to the USA that outweighs the negative feelings of those harmed by Cuba's government.

      • that would be dinosaurs view, wanting those there now to suffer for sins of those gone. Are you willing to suffer for injustices done to native americans, slaves, the u.s. native born Japanese put into U.S. concentration camps, those making tge mutilated by agent orange, etc?

        No? You're just vindictive hypocrite

        • But none of those things are still happening, in Cuba THEY ARE, the same family that seized power in the 70s because JFKâ(TM)s mishandling is still in power, talk about dinosaurs, they had 2 leaders in the last 65 years and the current one is the brother of the first one.

      • You will not convince them that we should all just let bygones be bygones and get along.

        Dude. Everyone who was responsible for what happened back then is dead dead dead. It is ALL bygone at this point. WTF? Holding grudges against the children and grandchildren? Really? Time has passed, the world has changed. That particular abomination is part of the past. Let it stay there and focus on the future (but never forget the past or else it will happen again).

        • Dude. WTF? Holding grudges against the children and grandchildren?

          Dude. Learn to read.

          The children and grandchildren are the ones holding the grudge against the government that harmed their families.

    • > USA should lift sanctions, trade and tourism would fix Cuba's economy in a New York minute. Some dinosaurs living in the past keep wailing every time the idea is floated, their ridiculous objections don't apply now in 21st century.

      We're not going to subsidize the Communist Party of Cuba.

      • The entire world, except the U.S., is free to travel to Cuba, sell their goods into Cuba, and buy all the Cuban goods they want. They are free to buy Korean automobiles, French wines, German chocolates, and all the Ukrainian produce/wheat/grain/etc they want... but they have no money to pay for it.

        Cuban tourism won't rescue the country - they already have a huge tourism industry, there's nothing stopping any non-American from taking their euros, yen, pesos, etc to Cuba when they travel.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      The problem is all of the Cubans living in Florida who want to destroy the country they left.

    • Simply lifting restrictions will not fix Cuba. Just look at the recent declines in farm output which have been in continuous decline since they were nationalized, but have now reached the collapse stage:
      - Pork production plummeted by 91% from 149,400 tons in 2018 to just 13,300 tons in 2023
      - Rice production dropped by 90%, from 273,800 tons to a mere 27,900 tons in the same period
      - Cuba was the worlds largest sugar producer in the 1950s, but in 2023 only produced 350,000 tons ... roughly 0.2% of

  • Cuba was the strangest vacation of my life. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:55PM (#64875805)

    A great deal of the rural poor in cuba don't have electricity at all.
    >but anon, I just googled it and a website says their population has 100% electrical coverage!
    Yeah that's bullshit.

    I went on vacation to a resort in cuba and holy fuck is that place POOR outside of the resort. Like, the kind of poor that makes rural mexico look wealthy. I make more in an hour than their normal workers make in a month. I was so much more extravagantly wealthy than their hotel workers that I felt bad having them serve me. How Canadian of me.
    I had a conversation with other Canadians on my flight who were bringing in miscellaneous goods and medical supplies(!!) (sorry, Michael Moore!) in their luggage to donate as charity. Apparently that's a common request, even for simple things like batteries.
    Every company is a government company. There is virtually zero private enterprise allowed there except for things like cafes and restaurants, which means there are no ads or billboards, except for a few billboards with images of Guevara and Chavez I happened to see. Income from tourists' tips is enormous compared to what Cubans make from normal jobs. There was a time you could go to jail for carrying USD, a Cuban told us, but that restriction has been lifted.
    The bookstores had tons of prominent socialist literature. Every store we went to told us their credit card machine was down, and I'm certain that's how they prefer it, hoping to get paper CAD/USD in their hands. Oh and weirdly we couldn't change pesos for US nor Canadian dollars.
    Random Cuban airport workers would shamelessly ask us for stuff we had, like diapers or our travel mug.
    Food wasn't good.
    What else... oh ya. They have government housing, and a ration of food staples allowed each month. Some hotel workers mentioned how they raise meat animals like goats because otherwise meat is unaffordable.
    Wifi was virtually unusable at our resort, and I saw that a lot of websites block cuban ip addresses, so I had to use an ssh tunnel through work to do banking. Lot of dot matrix printers and CRTs.
    Gorgeous beaches though. Wouldn't go again I don't think.

    • But, somehow, if we open up US markets to sell our goods into Cuba it will all get better? I don't think that's how economics work -

      Oh wait, the issue is we need to allow the importation of Cuban-made products and goods, certainly that will improve their situation, right?

      No, they have nothing that the outside world needs, and they can't pay for the things they need.

  • Ok, so wait... (Score:3)

    by Kelxin ( 3417093 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @06:00PM (#64875823)
    "The prime minister made an address on state television" to a county without power?????
    • If you're an upper class Cuban, you have power. Oh, wait. There's not supposed to be any classes there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      I imagine people have backup generators, or battery powered devices etc...

      • So yeah, if the COUNTRY doesn't have power, then everything used to run the Internet, video relays, etc has no power. Cuba overall is a very poor county. There's not going to be extra power generators laying around for everything.
      • Did you actually read the summary? Part of the problem is a fuel shortage.

        The other part is that most everyone is too poor to 'just have a backup generator'. Even if they had one, why would you waste any precious fuel you may still have to power a tv?

        I guess it was broadcast on radio too, but for some reason it was stated as national television.

    • Re:Ok, so wait... (Score:4, Informative)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @07:54PM (#64876093)
      >"The prime minister made an address on state television" to a county without power?????

      The address was broadcast Thursday night, power went out on Friday. Reading is fundamental.
    • Do generators, batteries, and public venues with TVs in them exist in Cuba?

  • Have visted cuba.. (Score:3)

    by steveb3210 ( 962811 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @06:41PM (#64875927)

    Visted cuba in 2018 as part of a cruise...

    Yes the government is stupid.

    But the sanctions are only hurting the people who live there, who incidentally are fucking amazing people.

    Life the sanctions now.

    • the people who live there, who incidentally are fucking amazing people.

      Did you use that f-word as a verb or as a noun? It changes the meaning of that clause drastically.

      • ... a verb or as ...

        I think you meant, as an adjective. "Fucking" can be used as a noun, as "got a good fucking", although it's out-of-date English.

        ... changes the meaning ...

        It means there are two reasons for visiting Cuba, although one of them might not be accurate. Or, you might get lucky and experience both meanings.

    • It is a communist paradise, anyone voting for Kamala can go there and get their free healthcare.

      • "cOmMuNiSt" that word has been so over misused that it practically lost all meaning. But enjoy Trumpcare. Hope you never have to go in for anything more than a couple scrapes and bruises.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tokul ( 682258 )

      if Florida turns into authoritarian state, democrats might just stop caring about getting votes there. Then Cuba might get its sanctions lifted.

  • So climate change? (Score:3)

    by kenh ( 9056 ) on Friday October 18, 2024 @11:03PM (#64876411) Homepage Journal

    Cuba's prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, blamed the problem on deteriorating infrastructure and fuel shortages exacerbated by Hurricane Milton, which has made it difficult for fuel deliveries to reach the island.

    So what's the plan? The current situation is caused by a lack of fuel to generate electricity, period. The deteriorating infrastructure is worth fixing, but that will just be money down a rat hole until Cuba finds a way to generate electricity without relying on shipments of Oil, Natural Gas or Coal - I hear that solar is so much cheaper than the alternative, they should just go solar - oh, wait, solar is cheap when the Govt subsidizes the research, manufacturing, installation, and purchase of solar cells...

    Maybe they could go with wind turbines?

    Or maybe hydro power?

    But, of course, the argument will likely devolve into climate change as their problem, because the climate is making it hard to import sufficient coal, oil, or natural gas to burn in Cuba to generate electricity and greenhouse gases at the same time!

  • For anybody who believes that US sanctions are the cause of issues in Cuba, I'm sorry that your education was somehow deficient.

    A bit part of Marx's original tenets of communism is that such a system wouldn't work unless it was worldwide. If you implement communism in part of the world, people with a means to go somewhere else would do so and you'd end up with nothing but a wasteland left behind. When the Soviets took over Russia, they were quite keen to ensure the success of their regime by spreading c

  • It is extremely difficult to license a new reactor design. Consequently we are still (maybe) building derivatives of the AP1000 and CE System 80 in 2024. Toshiba wanted to deploy their tiny 10MW 4S reactor in Galena, Alaska, literally the middle of nowhere.and the pushback (not from people who lived there) from the the anti nuclear lobby stopped it "cold" and Toshiba never even submitted the design for regulatory approval.. I think the Toshiba exited the business and IP was sold to the Chinese. Game over.

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