️ A major power outage has struck most of Cuba, with two-thirds of the country, including the capital Havana, left without electricity, according to the state electric utility UNE. The blackout was reportedly caused by a fault at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located about 100 km east of Havana, disrupting power from Pinar del Rio in the west to Las Tunas province in the east.

️ In Havana, the outage briefly took state television off the air, delaying the national news broadcast by over half an hour. Cuba's electricity generation system has been in crisis for years, with daily power outages of up to 20 hours common in parts of the impoverished island, largely due to a lack of fuel needed for power production.

️ The electricity crisis has intensified since the US regime allegedly abducted Cuba's key ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in January. Venezuela had supplied about half of Cuba's fuel, but Washington cut off that supply after Maduro's alleged abduction and imposed an oil embargo on Havana, which has been somewhat eased despite warnings from other Caribbean countries that it could trigger an economic collapse.

️ Fuel scarcity has forced the Cuban government to ration essential services, including waste collection and public transportation. In a related development, under apparent US pressure, Ecuador declared Cuban Ambassador Basilio Gutierrez and his diplomatic staff "persona non grata," giving them 48 hours to leave the country. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa is a close ally of US President Donald Trump, who recently suggested that the US could carry out a "friendly takeover" of Cuba.

️ Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla responded on social media, stating that he rejected "in the strongest terms the arbitrary and unjustified decision of the government of Ecuador to expel all personnel from the Cuban Embassy in that country." He added, "It does not seem coincidental that this decision was taken in a context characterised by the intensification of US aggression against Cuba and the strong pressures from that country's government on third states to join that policy."

Source: www.aljazeera.com