3rd October 2022
One week after Cuba was hit by a category three hurricane, Havana and some parts of the country are gradually beginning to return to normal. However, swathes of the island remain without power, adding significant pressure to the Government which is already under criticism for increasingly frequent power outages and shortages of basic goods including food.
Hurricane Ian struck Cuba on 26 September, devastating the eastern province of Pinar del Rio, and severely affecting the provinces of Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud. It left in its wake three people dead and extensive damage to crops, power and water infrastructure, housing, and factories.
Across Havana and some provincial cities, sporadic street protests have broken out in response to the continuing blackouts with some protestors returning to earlier calls from last year’s protests for “Libertad”. The protests were mainly in densely populated districts, including some of the more prosperous areas of Havana. Reuters indicated, based on its monitoring of social media, that such protests continued through to a fourth night on the 2nd October having erupted on the evening of the 29th. The extent and size of the protests is unclear but most appear to involve relatively small numbers of people.
Officials said that it was hoped that power would be fully restored in the capital by 3 October, but many other areas of the country particularly in the west largely remain without power.
In an unusual departure, indicative of the severity of the damage caused at a time of shortages, foreign exchange scarcity, and ongoing efforts to fully restore the country’s aging power generators (Cuba Briefing 26 September 2022), the Cuban government has sought emergency assistance from the US.
First reported by The Wall Street Journal, Cuba’s government made a rare request to Washington for help following the hurricane. Quoting email communications, the publication said that US officials were still seeking more detail from the government in Havana to try to determine how much assistance might be needed if Washington were to provide aid relating to hospitals, water pumping facilities, sanitation, and other critical infrastructure.
In other hurricane related developments, emergency assistance has been forthcoming from Mexico and Venezuela; Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s President has offered his country’s support; Cuba’s aviation authorities have confirmed that all Cuba’s airports are now open; Etecsa, Cuba’s state telecommunications company, has said that Hurricane Ian effected 40 percent of its base stations and seven percent of telephone services in Cuba, and that recovery work is continuing; and Cuba’s media have reported that a significant number of vessels in the Pinar del Rio based fishing fleet that obtains 40% of Cuba’s lobster catch has been damaged, affecting exports.
Speaking on 30 September in his capacity as President of the National Defence Council, President Díaz-Canel, said that external groups and especially those based in the US were active on social networks seeking in the “midst of this situation, social outburst.” He told participants that this made it fundamental that recovery work in the most hard-hit regions proceeded “more efficiently and more effectively,” and that care for those most effected be provided equally.
He also said that the recovery process must be fully explained. Noting that “at the moment we have limitations in providing information to the population through traditional means, as the electrical service was effected,” he told Defence Council members that it was vital that information be provided directly to the people.
“We have to establish it as a systematic method of work, especially where the greatest damage caused by the hurricane is – which is where recovery will take the longest,” the Presidency website quoted him as saying. The severe impact of the hurricane and the Cuban Government’s concerns about social stability, come on top of shortages of food, medicines and foreign exchange, and an energy crisis that has affected Cuba for months. Prior to the hurricane, Unión Eléctrica reported an electricity generation deficit of up to 38% and blackouts throughout Cuba for up to twelve hours a day as a consequence of a significant number of power plants being out of service for maintenance.
Photo by NASA
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