Havana/In full energy crisis and with two days exceeding 1,500 megawatts (MW) of deficit, the spokesman of the regime Humberto López dedicated his program We make Cuba To launch a warning: any crime “associated with the national electrical system” will be punished with maximum severity. It is, above all, the theft of oil from the transformers, although the dismantling of solar panels and a robbery of cables that caused the death of the thief was also mentioned.
“A person died trying to steal components from an installation of blind from Ávila. It was high tension and was injured. The product of those injuries died, ”said a police officer invited to the program. “The person climbed to cut the cable, took the current and died.”
It was the first time that the general director of the Electric Union (UNE), an official who is not usually before the cameras – usually his technical director, Lázaro Guerra – went to López’s program. To reinforce the severity of the crimes that came to denounce, the police person who alluded to the death of the thief and a prosecutor accompanied.
The theft of dielectric oil translators prevents the government from “changing the reality of the blackouts,” López argued
The theft of dielectric oil transformers – which is used as fuel in Cuba and already has taken several thieves to jail– It prevents the government from “changing the reality of the blackouts,” López argued. “What is the UNE?” The response of his interlocutor was to describe the viacrucis that has been to create a security mechanism, for the moment ineffective.
“There are our substations that are considered ‘not treated’ – because they are in the field in very isolated places – and there is no person who operates them,” said Valdés. “Ine, unscrupulous people take a valve that is made to remove the transformative oil when it is necessary to do it and drain the oil to sell it.”
Each transformer has 1,000 liters or more, he added. When extracted, a short circuit occurs and the equipment is burned. “The oil is an insulator and when that happens a breakdown occurs that, by the way, can kill the one who steals. It is dangerous. When you get into the area that is playing life. ”
As a precautionary measure, the UNE welded the valves that allow access to the oil tank. The thieves, however, are breaking them. They have also tried to put “caperuzas”, metal protective layers. Nor has it helped. “Now we are going to put cameras. It may be seen or not, but there will be a camera and we will continually transmit the information that the camera gives to a center ”.
“There will be no impunity. There are already cases where people have taken and are being processed ”
“There will be no impunity. There are already cases where people have taken and are being processed. ” Indeed, last September – a few weeks after the island entered the first total blackout of the National Electrical System (SEN) -, five people were arrested in Mayabeque. For those arrested, the Prosecutor’s Office requested 15 years in prison.
Captain Roberto Batista, the first criminal instructor of the Directorate of Investigations of the Ministry of Interior, took the floor to explain that the Police have redoubled their efforts to what it considers “a significant threat to SEN”. The Ministry has allocated more resources and agents to persecute the culprits, he added.
“The authors feel they have impunity for being in isolated places and believe they will not be discovered,” said the police. “We have mechanisms and we are prepared to identify the authors.” At the moment, they concentrate on identifying the tools used to break the valves. In addition, he said, criminals leave multiple fingerprints.
Another element that contributes to identifying thieves is the destination given to oil: it is used as fuel for tractors and those who buy it are fundamentally guajiros. “That is not a normal diesel and harms the team,” said the director of the UNE.
“There is a reception,” said López and asked the Mayabeque prosecutor – the province where they had detained in September – Lourdes Pedroso, to explain the consequences of the crime for the thief and for the one who buys it. Police know how to distinguish – through color and smell – when it is in the presence of dielectric oil, which, the agent added, allows to find tests quickly.
López proposed to “put more the screws on television” so that people learn to identify them and denounce the thieves
In addition, the thief is guilty of “robbery with force”, “theft” or any other “more serious” criminal typicity – as “embezzlement” or “against state security, such as sabotage” – for damages caused to SEN.
Another issue was the theft of solar panel components. Each solar park will have an investment of 16 million dollars – it is planned : “The screws are taken, we cannot allow it.”
López proposed to “put more the screws on television” so that people learn to identify them and denounce the thieves before the police if they see them somewhere else. “The population can help,” the official insisted. There is a temporary warehouse that has all the resources and that has become an objective of thieves. That is where the screws are taken, not of the panels already installed, he said. That is why the police are responsible for the surveillance of the premises.
“The parks will also have cameras and natural persons, in four to six garitas,” said the manager.
There were also “some facts” of fuel theft and parts of electric plants. “They are UNE workers in this case,” or who had the complicity of officials, said the manager, without offering more details. “Without saying the place, we have warned all workers.” “Maybe you have to say the name of the place,” asked the presenter. His interlocutor did not respond.
This Friday, the deficit planned by UNE for peak schedule is 1,435 MW, less than that of the last days but very high for a country that has been on the edge of the energy abyss for months when a lot is still missing for the summer, the season of greatest consumption . Without real solutions, the regime and its spokesmen only have a message to give to Cubans: there will be no more current, but more punishments.
