Notes

The day the lights went out in Cuba. The Republic of Cuba’s power grid finally collapsed on October 18. The state had sent all nonessential workers home the day before, trying to cut the island’s electricity usage, but it didn’t help. Around 11:00 a.m., the entire country lost electricity; it was restored for a while the following day, but there have been repeated, total blackouts across the country since then—and even on the best days, there are rolling blackouts to conserve energy. In many parts of the country, there’s electricity for only a few hours a day. The blackouts have caused problems for the country’s water systems, as well—on account of which hundreds of thousands of Cubans now don’t have running water. What’s behind all these problems?

The government blames the ongoing U.S. embargo; tourism hasn’t recovered since the pandemic; and more than 10 percent of the island’s population has emigrated in the past few years. And yet, as Javier Corrales explained in July 2021, Cuba’s economy has been falling apart for years—above all, because its main patron, Venezuela, is undergoing its own economic collapse. Meaning Venezuela can’t afford to send as much money—or oil to power the electricity grid—as it has been for the past 20 years. It’s one of the Americas’ more existential questions, Corrales says, of political and economic sustainability.

—Michael Bluhm