Cuba

Cuba Reports Island-Wide Power Outage After Weekend of Protests

Is U.S. pressure on Cuba a flawed collective punishment or an effective strategy forcing the government toward collapse?

Published MAR 16

Cuba Reports Island-Wide Power Outage After Weekend of Protests

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Above: A man rides a bicycle along the coastline of Havana during a blackout on March 16. Image credit: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Cuba's Communist regime brought this crisis on itself — decades of failed economic policy left the island dependent on Venezuelan handouts, and now that lifeline has largely disappeared. Cubans are banging pots, storming party offices and shouting "liberty" because the regime can no longer keep the lights on or food on the table. Talks with Washington are underway precisely because Havana knows U.S. pressure is working and that the status quo has become unsustainable.

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Establishment-critical narrative

U.S. pressure on Cuba amounts to collective punishment — cutting off oil has plunged ordinary Cubans into 15-hour blackouts, food shortages and economic collapse, following the same old playbook of regime change from within. However, in the case of Cuba, this strategy has repeatedly failed, from Kennedy’s embargo to Bush's travel restrictions. The Cuban Communist Party is far more durable than Maduro's fractured government ever was, making Trump's regime-change fantasy a costly delusion.