Crowds of hundreds of angry Cubans poured onto the streets in several outlying ​neighbourhoods, blocking roads with burning piles of rubbish, banging pots and shouting “Turn on the lights!” and “The people, ​united, will never be defeated!”

Reuters witnessed multiple groups of mostly peaceful protesters in locations ⁠across the city, marking the largest single night of demonstrations in Havana since the energy crisis took hold ​in January.

Cuba’s energy and mines minister earlier in the day said the nation had completely run out of diesel and fuel ​oil, and that its power grid had entered a “critical” state.

“We have absolutely no fuel (oil), and absolutely no diesel,” Energy Minister Vicente de la O said on state-run media. “We have no reserves.”

Blackouts have increased dramatically this week, with many districts of Havana without light for 20 to ​22 hours a day, the minister said, heightening tensions in a city already exhausted by food, fuel and medicine ​shortages.

The national grid, he said, was operating entirely on domestic crude oil, natural gas and renewable energy.

Cuba has installed 1,300 megawatts ‌of solar ⁠power over the past two years, but much of that capacity is lost to grid instability amid the fuel shortages, de la O said, reducing efficiency and output.

Demand for fuel

The country’s top energy official said Cuba continued negotiations to import fuel despite the blockade, but said rising global oil and transportation prices as a result of the US-Israeli ​war with Iran were further ​complicating that effort.

“Cuba is ⁠open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel,” the minister said.

Neither Mexico nor Venezuela, once top suppliers of oil to Cuba, has sent fuel to the island since ​Trump’s January 2026 executive order threatening tariffs on any country shipping fuel to the ​communist-run nation.

Only a ⁠single large oil tanker, the Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin, has delivered crude oil to Cuba since December, providing temporary relief to the island in April.

The renewed power cuts in Havana and beyond come as the US blockade on fuel imports to Cuba ⁠enters its ​fourth month, crippling public services across the Caribbean island of nearly ​10 million people.

The United Nations last week called Trump’s fuel blockade unlawful, saying it had obstructed the “Cuban people’s right to development while undermining their rights ​to food, education, health, and water and sanitation.”