Following Wednesday's collapse of Cuba's National Electric System due to a failure at the Matanzas-based Antonio Guiteras power plant, residents in this eastern city face prolonged outages exceeding 30 hours, forcing a reorganization of daily life amid growing resignation.
The blackout, which struck without warning around 12:41 p.m. on March 4, has become a familiar intruder in Matanzas, as local resident Julio Cesar Contreras told 14ymedio. While restoration efforts continue nationwide—affecting areas from Pinar del Río to Camagüey, including Havana—Matanzas neighborhoods like Pueblo Nuevo endure some of the longest outages, reminiscent of the 1990s Special Period.
Adriana, a single mother, vented from her doorway: “How long is this going to go on! There isn’t even enough time to cook the rice. Between the times they turn it off and on, we don’t even get an hour of electricity.” She stored her refrigerator's contents in a neighbor's freezer to prevent spoilage. Retiree Hilda, a former teacher, lost mobile signal during a video call with her grandson in Spain: “Etecsa raised its rates, but it hasn’t been able to buy new batteries for its towers.” Unstable voltage has damaged appliances, like her daughter's freezer in Cárdenas.
Machinist Ricardo, who runs a small private workshop, lost another day of income: “I thought today I could catch up on some of the delayed orders.” Families now wake at 2 or 3 a.m. when power briefly returns to cook, wash, and charge devices, only to face exhaustion. Chronic issues like fuel shortages exacerbate the crisis.
Resignation defines the mood in Matanzas: “You just have to ground yourself,” Ricardo says with a shrug. “Because if you start thinking too much about this, you go crazy.”
