Cuba’s ongoing energy crisis has intensified, driven by acute fuel shortages caused by American fuel blockades.
Cuban authorities say tightened U.S. sanctions and fuel shipment restrictions have severely limited oil imports, leaving ageing power infrastructure without sufficient supply. In January, multiple grid failures triggered widespread blackouts across Havana and several provinces, disrupting hospitals, water systems and food refrigeration.
Cuba is dependent on imported fuel, particularly from Venezuela and Mexico. As a result of operations in Venezuela, the United States has seized control of a significant supply of Venezuelan oil, and is wielding that control to pressure Cuba into regime change.
As outages stretch on, protests continue to break out in parts of Havana and Santiago, with demonstrators calling for electricity restoration and improved living conditions.
Washington has defended its sanctions policy, and additional U.S. measures and strong rhetoric in recent weeks have further strained relations, raising concern about deeper diplomatic confrontation.
The United Nations has warned that Cuba is on the brink of a "humanitarian collapse". For ordinary Cubans, the crisis is immediate and practical: homes without power, food spoiling in refrigerators, limited transport, and uncertainty about when relief might come.
Whatever the political arguments, it is families, elderly people and children who are bearing the weight of prolonged instability.
We pray for those living without reliable electricity, fuel and food, that essential supplies would reach communities quickly.
We pray for wisdom and restraint between Cuba and the United States, that policies and responses would reduce rather than deepen suffering.
We pray for stability and dignity for the Cuban people, that peaceful solutions would emerge and that hope would not be lost in prolonged hardship.