Cuba’s Power Crisis Exposes the High Cost of Failed Energy Independence

Nearly a day after a sweeping blackout darkened western Cuba, over two hundred thousand residents remain without electricity—a stark reminder that Cuba’s fragile energy system is teetering on collapse. As repair crews scramble to fix a broken boiler at a key thermoelectric plant, officials warn full restoration could take days, leaving hospitals and water stations barely hanging on through limited power. While state media focuses on the immediate hardship, the deeper story here is one of chronic mismanagement compounded by external pressures—the kind of crisis that endangers not only Cuban citizens but also America's strategic interests in our own hemisphere....