GUANTANAMO, Cuba. — Inhabitants of the provincial capital of Guantánamo recently expressed their discontent with the blackouts that for months have affected both that territory and the rest of the country’s provinces.
In statements offered to CubaNetsome locals made it clear that the authorities should look for alternatives to less affect the population, whose basic activities depend in many cases on the flow of electricity.
“It should be them and not the people who do more with less. If they have fewer resources, they are the bosses and the ones in charge of looking for a solution and an alternative so that it is not the people who suffer. Because it is a town of children of pregnant women, of the elderly, of bedridden patients, of patients with different pathologies that need electricity,” Daniela, a 31-year-old doctor who is currently pregnant, told this newspaper.
The woman, who is already the mother of a seven-year-old boy, recalled that this same Monday she suffered a 12-hour blackout.
“My son’s snack jars did not freeze and the milk spoiled. My son went through tremendous heat and like him the entire Guantanamo population. I think that if they don’t do something to reverse this situation, the population has to do it”.
Carmen, a mother of two children who also lives in the city of Guantánamo, explains that the locals suffer numerous power outages almost daily and that this Monday she woke up without power in her home.
“Yesterday the current left at half past four in the morning and arrived around nine in the morning. Then it went again at one in the afternoon and they put it on around nine at night. Then he left again at dawn, around two in the morning, and these are the holy hours that have not yet arrived. I believe that this situation does not give more”, said the woman to CubaNet.
The population’s discomfort has spread to social networks, where many users assure that the island’s rulers do not suffer from the same situation.
Juan Luis Bravo Rodríguez, a member of the Union for Free Cuba Party (PUNCLI) and managing leader of the Emilia Project in Guantanamo, maintains that although the island’s regime tries to justify the blackouts with alleged breakdowns of thermoelectric plants, the problem goes further.
“They tell the population that the blackouts are the result of breakages in the different electricity generation stations, but it is a lie. The reality is that they do not have enough oil and that is when they take the opportunity to maintain these generating units, but they report them as having technical problems. The reality is that there is not enough oil in the country for the complete generation of electrical energy”, said the activist.
Recently, the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) reported on interruptions to the electrical service due to the loss of circulation of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, in the province of Cienfuegos, which, together with almost supposed repairs in other plants, has led to affected in almost the entire country.
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