Cuba’s energy crisis exposes systemic failures: neoliberal reforms, US sanctions, and climate vulnerability fuel blackouts and unrest
Original framing: “‘Absolutely no fuel’: Cuba hit by blackouts, protests amid power outages” — Al Jazeera
Cuba’s energy grid was built during the Cold War to prioritize industrial output over resilience, leaving it vulnerable to shocks like the 1990s Soviet collapse or today’s sanctions. The US embargo, tightened in the 1990s, directly targeted Cuba’s energy imports, mirroring historical patterns of economic warfare (e.g., Chile under Allende). Post-2000, Cuba’s 'energy revolution'—a decentralized shift to renewables—was stymied by global capital flows and climate disasters, revealing how historical legacies shape present crises.
Cuba’s blackouts are not merely a fuel crisis but a convergence of historical, geopolitical, and ecological forces: the legacies of US sanctions that date to the Cold War, the collapse of Venezuela’s oil subsidies, and a grid designed for industrial output rather than resilience.
The Afro-Cuban communities of eastern Cuba, who bear the brunt of blackouts, embody the intersection of racial and energy injustice, while Cuba’s scientists and cooperatives offer glimpses of a decentralized future—one that sanctions and climate shocks threaten to extinguish. The trickster’s irony lies in how both embargo and revolution have trapped Cuba in a cycle of dependency, where energy becomes both a weapon and a lifeline. A systemic solution requires dismantling the sanctions regime, scaling renewable microgrids with Global South solidarity, and centering marginalized voices in energy governance—transforming blackouts from symbols of failure into catalysts for sovereignty. The path forward mirrors Cuba’s own 'Special Period' adaptations: not a return to the past, but a leap into a post-extractive, cooperative future.