Cuba grid reconnected after 36-hour blackout

Cuba's state electricity operator said Tuesday that the country's power grid had been reconnected after a 36-hour nationwide blackout, the sixth islandwide outage this year.

Authorities had struggled to bring generation facilities and connectors back online. The blackout added to constant localised power cuts that have left many Cubans with electricity for only a few hours a day.

In Old Havana late Monday, residents stood on balconies and leaned from windows, thumping kitchenware and clapping during an hour-long protest in the dark.

Carlos Garcia, a 57-year-old tricycle taxi driver, said repeated outages had become routine. "This is the new normal: the system goes down, they reconnect it, and it goes down again," he said.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blamed the grid failures on the US blockade, saying it prevents fuel imports, blocks parts and components, hinders cooperation with foreign experts and impedes access to international financing.

The United States says the crisis is caused by the communist government's mismanagement of the economy.

Many Cuban power facilities run on fuel oil, diesel or natural gas, which are no longer regularly arriving in Cuban ports. Washington has warned countries they will face sanctions if they deliver oil to Cuba.