Riots hit Cuba amid fuel shortage, 22-hour power cuts

Riots have erupted on the blackout-hit streets of the Cuban capital as the communist government admitted it had exhausted fuel reserves. Hundreds of Cubans blocked roads with burning piles of rubbish in Havana and shouted “Turn on the lights!” in protest at lengthy electricity outages, The Telegraph reported.  This week, parts of the Caribbean island have been without electricity for 20-22 hours per day, in blackouts that have dramatically worsened this year under an American fuel blockade. Vicente de la O Levy, the energy minister, said the island of 10 million people had run out of fuel oil and diesel, with no reserves. He told state-run media: “The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have absolutely none; diesel, of which we have absolutely none – I am being repetitive – the only thing we have is gas from our wells, where production has grown.” He also acknowledged that the situation in the country was “extremely tense”. Cuba lost the supply of around half its fuel when US special forces snatched Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader in January.  Maduro’s successor has since bowed to US pressure not to supply Cuba. Mexico, which was previously a major supplier to the island’s refinery system, has also stopped sending fuel. Donald Trump has said he wants to oust Cuba’s communist-run government and has imposed an embargo and threatened tariffs on any nation supplying the country. Since then, only one oil tanker, from Russia, has reached Cuba. Irailda Bravo, 38, told Reuters she was protesting against the blackouts in Marianao after being forced to sleep outside for days because the heat was so bad in her home without electricity. She said: “We know that the situation ‌in the country is chaotic. But we have young kids. We have to work. We have a life. We need to rest, and we can’t.” Several protests were halted, amid cheers, when power returned to individual neighbourhoods, according to reports. Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, said the corrupt Cuban government system was to blame for the blackouts. “It’s a broken, non-functional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told Fox News.  Rubio, himself a Cuban-American, said: “We’ll give them a chance. But I don’t think it’s going to happen. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to change the trajectory of Cuba as long as these people are in charge in that regime.”  Rubio, who is in Beijing with Donald Trump, said last week that Cuba had rejected a US offer for $100m (£74m) in assistance. Havana denied any knowledge of the proposal. The post Riots hit Cuba amid fuel shortage, 22-hour power cuts appeared first on Egyptian Gazette.