MADRID, Spain.- The “vaccines” to combat COVID-19, the North American embargo and events such as fires and Hurricane Ian, are the reasons for the energy crisis and its consequent blackouts that have affected Cubans throughout 2022, according to recent statements by Cuban leaders.
“The impact of COVID-19 conditioned the majority of the country’s financial resources to be allocated to the development of vaccines to control the dangerous pandemic,” said Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, on Tuesday when speaking at the Tenth Ordinary Period of Sessions of the IX Legislature of the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP).
This “prevented guaranteeing the necessary financing for the maintenance of the National Electro-energy System (SEN) and the acquisition of fuels for generation, as they are highly expensive in the international market,” he added in this regard.
During the meeting, held at the Convention Center and reviewed by the official Granma, the Cuban authorities also referred to the fires that occurred in unit 7 of the CTE Máximo Gómez, in Mariel; and in the boiler of unit 2 of the CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez, from Felton, Holguín.
“These two events caused the loss of the minimum reserve necessary to cover the country’s electricity demand,” said Vicente de la O Levy.
While Hurricane Ian, which struck Cuba last September, and especially the western provinces, “caused severe damage to the electrical system in that part of the national territory, which affected 1,364,664 customers, making it necessary to allocate 4 860 electrical workers to recovery for more than a month”.
As usual in the regime’s discourse, the US embargo is the cause of the ills of the island’s failed system.
“The economic, commercial and financial blockade of the US Government against our country has a great impact on the gradual deterioration and low availability of electricity on the Island,” said the Minister of Energy and Mines.
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