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Cuba is facing one of its worst emergencies in decades. Join us as we break down the critical forces tearing the island apart — from catastrophic blackouts and crippling fuel shortages to mass migration, foreign pressure, and the very real fear that the worst may still be ahead. What do you think will happen next? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00Governor Ron DeSantis says the state is preparing for another mass exodus from Cuba because of
00:05conditions there. Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're breaking down the major forces driving
00:10Cuba's deepening emergency. From blackouts and fuel shortages, to migration, foreign pressure,
00:16and the growing fear that this could spiral into something even bigger. This isn't just a story
00:21about people losing power for a few hours. It's about what happens when an already strained country
00:27starts breaking down on multiple fronts at once. Russian tankers are en route to Cuba in an attempt
00:32to bypass U.S. sanctions as one of the worst energy crisis in modern history grips the Caribbean
00:38nation. Cuba's power grid is falling apart. In Cuba, millions of people are still without power today
00:44after another widespread blackout. The country's power grid collapsed yesterday.
00:54Crowds took to the streets of Havana overnight, banging pots and pans to protest the government's
01:00handling of the crisis. So here's the thing, folks. The clearest symbol of Cuba's crisis has been the
01:05collapse of its electrical grid. In March 2026, the island was hit by multiple nationwide blackouts,
01:12including a March 16th collapse that left roughly 10 million people without power.
01:16Then on March 21st, another major failure followed, after trouble at the Nevuitas thermoelectric plant
01:23triggered yet another cascading outage. In the country's capital, residents share their
01:27exasperation. We're stuck in the same rut, twice a week cooking with firewood. It's absolute madness.
01:34The solution is unlikely. We've been stuck in the same situation for 60 years. And that's what makes
01:39this so alarming. Cuba has dealt with power problems for years. But what happened this spring was on
01:44another level entirely. These were massive countrywide failures that exposed just how fragile the whole
01:50system has become. And it's becoming more dire every day. You have hospitals that are canceling
01:56surgeries, women that are given giving birth in the dark. There's also been a food and medicine
02:02shortage. And people, as you mentioned, are taking to the streets to protest. The real crisis goes far beyond
02:10electricity. This is how serious the fuel crisis is. These cab drivers have been here all night.
02:15They're actually pushing this cab to conserve what little fuel they have left. In this line, they only
02:19get five gallons of gas. And to get it, they need this government issued card. Life for everyday Cubans has
02:26become grueling and unyielding. It's easy to hear blackouts and assume this is mainly a power story.
02:32But really, the outages are just the most visible symptom. The real crisis is everything those outages set
02:38off. When electricity and fuel become scarce, water pumps stop working properly, buses get cut back,
02:45hospital procedures are delayed, food spoils in warm fridges, and garbage starts piling up because
02:51collection trucks can't get enough fuel. Lines also forming at the street market for food,
02:56for those who can't afford it. Today is the farmer's market, and I can't buy anything because I have no
03:03money, this mother told me. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Quenel reported that tens of thousands of
03:08surgeries were being delayed because of electricity shortages. Other outlets described people hauling
03:14water by hand, cooking over wood fires, and navigating neighborhoods where basic services had started
03:20breaking down. Giovanni Rafael Peleta has worked at the Savannah upholstery shop for 15 years. He's
03:26grateful the lights are on today after Monday's national blackout that lasted more than a day.
03:33It's like having a rope around my neck, he says. They keep squeezing, squeezing. He welcomes help from
03:39any country, including the U.S. Things are just too dire, he says, to keep throwing stones. Oil shortages are
03:46driving the collapse. Well, Russian airlines now halting flights to Cuba because the island nation says it's
03:52run out of jet fuel. Here's what happened. Mexico cut off oil to Cuba after pressure from the Trump
03:57administration, but it's still sending humanitarian aid like essential food items. If there's one
04:02practical cause at the center of all of this, it's fuel. Cuba depends heavily on oil to generate
04:08electricity, and it also needs fuel to run public transit, ambulances, garbage trucks, water deliveries,
04:14and cargo transport. Once that supply starts drying up, everything begins to wobble. This is also a
04:20working day in Havana, and there are very few vehicles on the road. The price of fuel has skyrocketed,
04:27including on the black market, and those who are on the roads tend to be electric vehicles that are
04:34charged at home when the power comes back on, or those making only necessary journeys. Reuters reported
04:42that by mid-March, Cuba had received only two small oil-related import vessels all year. One shipment from
04:48Mexico in January, and one LPG shipment from Jamaica in February. Around that same time, President Diaz-Canel
04:56said the country had gone three months without foreign oil imports, and that Cuba was producing
05:01only about 40% of the fuel it actually needed. Though shortages didn't happen in a vacuum,
05:06they were worsened by what Cuban officials and multiple international reports have described as a
05:11U.S.-driven oil blockade that made it harder for Havana to secure desperately needed fuel.
05:16This is also a country that has been struggling for decades. I mean, poverty is a real problem.
05:23Yes, it's not like they're coming off a high where they've been a very developed country,
05:26so it's one of these where people have always said, well, maybe next year they collapse. But now you take
05:30away 60% of their oil requirement, and you can't even keep the lights on. That economy is doomed.
05:36Venezuela's collapse hit Cuba hard. A huge part of this story goes back to Venezuela. For years,
05:51subsidized Venezuelan oil helped keep Cuba afloat. At one point under Hugo Chavez, Venezuela was sending
05:58nearly 100,000 barrels of heavily discounted oil a day. Even after that high point passed, Caracas
06:04remained one of Havana's most important lifelines. In exchange, Cuba provided intelligence, security
06:11assistance, doctors, and political support. All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered
06:17powerless as the men and women of our military working with U.S. law enforcement successfully
06:23captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off.
06:35That all changed in early 2026, when the United States conducted an operation that saw Venezuelan
06:41President Nicolas Maduro captured and flown to New York on narco-trafficking charges. Once Venezuela's
06:48leadership was shaken and those oil flows were disrupted, Cuba lost a support beam it had leaned
06:53on for years. U.S. officials understood exactly how vulnerable that would make Havana.
06:59In a social media post, Mr. Trump said Cuba has long lived off Venezuelan oil and money. He wrote,
07:05quote, there will be no more oil or money going to Cuba, zero. He also urged the country to make
07:10a deal
07:11with the U.S., but it wasn't clear what he was looking to get from Havana. Cuba's president rebuffed
07:16Trump's threats, saying Cuba is ready to defend itself. The United States is making the crisis
07:22worse. I can tell you that they're talking to us. It's a failed nation. They have no money. They have
07:28no oil. They have no nothing. They have nice land. They have nice landscape. You know, it's a beautiful
07:35island. I think they have great people. You know, I know so many people from Cuba that were treated
07:40terribly and they're over here and they became rich. Cuba's government bears responsibility for
07:44plenty of its own problems, but the whole situation has laid one hard truth bare. Washington isn't just
07:51watching this crisis unfold from the sidelines. In fact, the crisis is also being intensified by what
07:57amounts to a U.S.-driven economic and oil blockade. The New York Times is reporting the U.S. has told
08:02Cuba
08:03for any meaningful progress to be made in negotiations. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel must step down.
08:10The Trump administration is following much more a Venezuela model than let's say an Iranian model,
08:15but where Trump has a lot more leverage is the fact that Cuba does have a significant economic
08:21and energy crisis. The Trump administration cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened
08:27penalties against countries helping supply the island. Mexico backed away from fuel shipments under
08:32U.S. pressure, and the U.S. government had been looking for Cuban insiders who might help broker a deal
08:37to push the communist government out by the end of 2026. If all available reporting is right,
08:44then this isn't just a sanctions story, it's a pressure campaign designed to exploit Cuba's fragility.
08:49But I think Cubans see the end. You know, all my life I've been hearing about the United States and
08:53Cuba.
08:54When will the United States do it? I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of
09:02taking Cuba. That's a big honor.
09:05Taking Cuba.
09:06Taking Cuba in some form, yeah.
09:10The situation is getting even more complicated than it was, so we're out looking for coal. Our budget
09:17doesn't stretch to an electric generator or an EcoFlow battery, or anything like that. Charcoal is
09:23the most affordable option. It's not exactly cheap, but at least it solves the problem.
09:28This is the part that matters most. However you interpret Cuba's government, or U.S. policy,
09:33or the broader politics around all of this, the people feeling the crisis the most directly are
09:38ordinary Cubans. Residents have been shown hauling buckets of water, trying to keep food from spoiling,
09:44sitting through long, hot nights in dark apartments, waiting for buses that may not come,
09:49and dealing with streets where trash is piling up because city services are sputtering.
09:54So we have a situation that I think really doesn't resemble anything we've seen before.
10:00It's far worse in some ways than what happened in the early years after the collapse of the Soviet
10:05Union. Hospitals are strained, medical procedures are being delayed, and even routine parts of daily
10:10life have gotten harder. That's what gives this story its real weight. Millions of people trying
10:15to get through the day while the systems around them steadily stop working. I've got a trip to make
10:20and everything's been canceled. There's nothing. We're stuck here, and what's worse is the helplessness
10:25about what's going to happen, the uncertainty. More and more Cubans have been driven to leave.
10:30Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida is preparing for another mass migration from Cuba to Florida,
10:36but he says this time will be different. But if there is more turbulence there, there could potentially
10:42be an exodus out of Cuba trying to come to Florida. We don't think that that is acceptable. One of
10:50the
10:50strongest signs that this crisis goes way beyond temporary hardship is the sheer number of people
10:55who have already left. More than a million Cubans have migrated off the island since 2021,
11:00making it the largest exodus since the 1959 revolution. The revolutionary leader now took
11:06to the public square in Havana to tell the people what victory meant. There would soon be general elections.
11:13There would be a free press beholden to no one. There would be land for the peasants. This revolution,
11:21Fidel Castro told the people standing in the sun of the Prado, is as native as the Cuban palm.
11:27For a country Cuba's size, that's massive. And it tells you something important. A huge number of people
11:32have clearly concluded that life on the island is no longer sustainable. So the migration story isn't some
11:38side note. It's one of the clearest indicators of how deep the collapse has become. People don't leave
11:44home in those kinds of numbers unless they believe the situation is becoming intolerable. We think they
11:49need to fix Cuba there by getting a new government in Cuba. In fact, there should be people who are
11:55who are exiled that go back and help that process if we can get there. But we don't want to
12:01see a
12:01massive armada of people showing up on the shores of the Florida Keys. And so we're already working on
12:08those contingencies. And the Trump administration agrees with us. This could be more than a
12:13humanitarian crisis. Cuba's deputy foreign minister says the island is prepared for the unlikely
12:17possibility of a military engagement with the U.S. It comes as a response to U.S. President Donald
12:24Trump's threat to take over the Caribbean island nation. Earlier this month, Havana and Washington
12:29entered talks as an oil blockade imposed by Trump pushes the country into a deeper economic crisis.
12:36The biggest reason to pay attention to Cuba right now is that this could still spiral further.
12:41The U.N. has warned that the country's already strained health system is nearing a critical point.
12:46Aid convoys have been arriving with solar panels, food, medicine and other emergency supplies.
12:52At the same time, public frustration is becoming harder to ignore. We've seen pot banging protests in
12:57Havana, a student protest at the University of Havana and unrest in Moran. Take a look at this video on
13:03your
13:03screen, which shows the fiery scene at the headquarters. The protests stemmed from energy,
13:08supply issues and access to food. The Wall Street Journal reports that protesters chanted
13:12libertad, libertad through rocks at the building and eventually set it ablaze. The city did not have
13:18electricity for 30 hours. Some in Washington reportedly see this as a moment to force political rupture,
13:24even while acknowledging there's no clear plan for what happens afterward. And that's the real danger here.
13:29Cuba is no longer just dealing with shortages. It's facing a scenario where humanitarian strain,
13:35migration, unrest, repression and foreign pressure could all feed into something more volatile.
13:41At that point, this stops being just a crisis of services and becomes a crisis about the future
13:46stability of the Cuban state itself. Resident Alberto Castro turned his ire to Washington.
13:55We've been dealing with this mess for 66 years, brother. If we don't reach an understanding,
13:59it's going to be very difficult for things to improve on either side.
14:03What do you think will happen next in Cuba? Is there anything we missed?
14:06Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
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