▲ Residents of Havana buy bags of charcoal for cooking, given the energy shortage caused by the new restrictions imposed by the United States.Photo Afp
▲ A nun thanks God for the installation of a solar energy system in a nursing home in the Guanabacoa neighborhood.Photo Afp
Afp
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, February 11, 2026, p. 4
Havana. Faced with the risk of a worsening of the energy crisis, the inhabitants of Havana are trying to protect themselves: coal reserves for some, electric motorcycles for others and solar panels for those who can afford them.
On the side of a peripheral highway southeast of Havana, on the asphalt, some vendors sell charcoal and handmade braziers, some made from old washing machine drums and others more elaborate.
“Everyone knows what’s coming. We don’t have fuel in the country; we have to look for options,” said Niurbis Lamothe, a 53-year-old state employee, after purchasing an artisanal charcoal stove.
“She tightened her shoe more than it was,” says a buyer who prefers not to give her name, while looking at a bag of charcoal worth 2,600 pesos ($5.25), that is, about 50 percent of the average Cuban salary.
This mother of a little girl explained that her salary is not enough to buy a power plant or a small lithium battery to overcome the 10 or 12 hours of power outages she suffers daily.
Yurisnel Agosto, a 36-year-old merchant, confirmed that “he had never sold so much.” Previously, their main customers were pizzerias or barbecue restaurants, but now more and more people bring charcoal to their homes.
Cuba’s economic situation has seriously deteriorated in recent years, with all kinds of shortages, electricity cuts and lack of fuel.
Now, the energy strangulation imposed by the United States, which has maintained a blockade on the island for more than 60 years, makes us fear the worst. Added to this is that the Cuban economy is unable to recover and in 2025 it contracted around 5 percent, according to a recent report from the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy.
Cubans try to adapt. Some remember that they already lived through the Special Period, the very serious economic crisis that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, then Cuba’s main ally and its economic support.
Starting in 2000, with Hugo Chávez in the presidency, Venezuela took over as an oil supplier to Cuba, but the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, on January 3 in Caracas in a US military raid, set off alarms in Cuba, which already had difficulties covering half of its electricity needs.
Photocell installation companies multiply
Cubans now see their salvation in solar panels. Installation companies have multiplied since 2024, thanks to the import facilities opened by the government.
In the Guanabacoa neighborhood, in eastern Havana, workers are busy installing 12 solar panels on the roof of a home for the elderly managed by the Catholic Church. With these devices, the nuns will be able to prepare food for about 80 people.
“Without electricity we would have no way to do it,” explains Gertrudis Abreu, a Dominican nun who manages the soup kitchen and asked for donations to raise the $7,000 needed for the installation.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Electrical Union (UNE) reported that energy generation in Havana last night was 1,134 megawatts, while nighttime demand – which is always the highest of the day – was 3,100 MW. The data are similar to those presented by the institution the night before, when availability was 1,193 MW and demand was 3,05 MW.
The UNE also reported that as of 8:40 p.m. last night, the reestablishment of energy service began for clients associated with the third block, of the six in which the service is distributed and who simultaneously suffered a deficit in supply. Previously, the energy supply was restored to blocks one and two, and the remaining three blocks were pending.
Cubans are accustomed to blackouts of up to 10 hours a day, and sometimes they last several days.
