Cuba Protests Erupt Amid 22-Hour Blackouts, Fuel Crisis

Is Cuba's power crisis due to unjust U.S. economic warfare or decades of communist mismanagement?

Published 14 hours ago

Cuba Protests Erupt Amid 22-Hour Blackouts, Fuel Crisis

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Above: People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana, Cuba on May 13. Image credit: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

The U.S. fuel blockade on Cuba is a deliberate act of economic warfare that has left millions without power for up to 22 hours a day, shut down hospitals and schools, and strangled food supply chains. The U.N. has called it unlawful, and the numbers back that up — one tanker in four months covers barely 12% of monthly needs. No legitimate foreign policy goal justifies engineering a humanitarian catastrophe against an entire civilian population.

Hua Xin on X Granma Guardian

Pro-establishment narrative

The Cuban regime's 67 years of communist mismanagement — not U.S. sanctions — created this crisis, as a crumbling, unmaintained power grid was always destined to fail. GAESA, the military conglomerate controlling 40% of Cuba's economy, funnels billions into elite overseas accounts while ordinary Cubans go hungry and protest in the streets. Targeting that corrupt apparatus with sanctions is exactly the kind of pressure needed to force real political change.

Marco Rubio on X

Marco Rubio on US State Department Breitbart