Cuba is facing several emergencies at the same time. The national electrical grid has failed repeatedly. Fuel shortages are limiting transportation and the distribution of basic goods. Major shipping companies have suspended bookings, while containers that do reach Cuban ports can remain there because trucks, fuel, electricity, and logistics capacity are not available to move them.
These are not separate problems. Each failure makes the others worse. A container of food may reach Mariel but still fail to reach a neighborhood market. A private business may have already paid for merchandise but be unable to collect it. A hospital may receive supplies but struggle to store medicine safely through long power cuts. For ordinary families, the result is increasingly the same: fewer necessities, higher prices, lost work, spoiled food, and greater uncertainty.
Repeated national grid collapses
On Sunday night, August 2, Cuba’s national electrical grid collapsed, leaving the island’s population of roughly 10 million without power. On Monday, August 3, the system collapsed again, less than a day later, while restoration work was still underway. Reuters reported that a technical oscillation caused the second failure. These collapses followed three other nationwide outages in July, demonstrating just how unstable the system has become.
Reuters reported on the second collapse and the continuing restoration effort. The Associated Press has also documented rolling outages lasting more than 20 hours in some areas, severe summer heat, food spoilage, disruption to public transportation, and the effects on hospitals and everyday life.
The immediate causes include insufficient fuel, aging generating plants, deteriorated infrastructure, and a grid that is increasingly difficult to stabilize. The causes are politically disputed. Cuban officials emphasize the effects of U.S. sanctions and the tightening of fuel restrictions, while U.S. officials also point to decades of state mismanagement and inadequate investment. The human consequences do not depend on which explanation a person accepts. People need electricity to pump water, refrigerate medicine, preserve food, communicate, travel, work, and sleep safely during the hottest part of the year.
The crisis at Cuba’s ports
A recent report by independent journalist Arturo Dominguez describes thousands of shipping containers accumulating at Cuban ports. The precise total has not been published as an official national port statistic, so that figure should be attributed to the report. However, independent reporting confirms the larger problem: substantial quantities of cargo are reaching Cuban ports but cannot be distributed efficiently.
EFE reported in June that the United Nations had been unable to distribute nearly 20,000 metric tons of food effectively because of Cuba’s fuel shortage. Sources familiar with the situation said approximately 11,000 tons of food and nutritional supplements were held at the ports of Mariel and Santiago de Cuba. The cargo had reached the island, but the domestic transportation system lacked the fuel and capacity to move it where it was needed.
Read the EFE report on the food assistance held at Cuban ports.
This is a crucial distinction. Port congestion does not necessarily mean that the terminal itself is closed. It means that the supply chain from ship to warehouse, store, hospital, school, or family is breaking down. Unloading a container is only the first step. The cargo must clear customs, be assigned to a truck, leave the port, reach a warehouse, and then travel through a distribution network. Every stage requires fuel, electricity, workers, communications, functioning refrigeration, and reliable payment and logistics services.
Major shipping companies have suspended Cuba bookings
The problem begins before some containers reach the island. In May, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd suspended new bookings to and from Cuba, citing compliance risks connected to a May 1 U.S. executive order. Reuters reported that the suspension by two of the world’s largest carriers could place as much as 60 percent of Cuba’s container-shipping traffic by volume at risk, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
Reuters explained the potential scale of the disruption, while Hapag-Lloyd publicly confirmed its temporary suspension of new Cuba bookings.
A booking suspension does not mean that 60 percent of all Cuban imports have already stopped. It means that a very large share of normal shipping capacity may be threatened if importers cannot secure alternative carriers and routes. Alternatives can involve longer transit times, limited space, more transfers through third-country ports, and significantly higher costs.
Why private Cuban businesses are being hit so hard
Cuba’s private businesses now perform an essential role in the circulation of food, hygiene products, household goods, restaurant supplies, transportation parts, construction materials, solar equipment, and many other necessities. The private sector does not operate separately from the national logistics system. Its imports often pass through the same ports, customs procedures, warehouses, freight companies, banks, and trucking networks used by other Cuban commerce.
Independent Cuban reporting documented frozen chicken, construction products, paint, plumbing materials, and other merchandise accumulating at Mariel because trucks lacked fuel. Some businesses reportedly suspended activities because they could not collect products they had already imported.
For a private importer, a container held at the port can create several simultaneous losses:
- Merchandise cannot be sold, used, or distributed.
- Perishable food may spoil or lose part of its remaining shelf life.
- Storage, container detention, and rerouting charges can continue to accumulate.
- Restaurants, stores, manufacturers, farms, and repair businesses cannot restock.
- Employees lose hours or jobs when operations slow or stop.
- Higher logistics costs are eventually reflected in higher consumer prices.
The impact therefore moves quickly from an importer to the wider population. When a bakery cannot obtain ingredients, a refrigeration technician cannot get replacement parts, or a private market cannot retrieve food, the shortage becomes visible in communities far beyond the port.
Sanctions are adding further uncertainty
Recent U.S. sanctions have targeted Cuban companies connected to foreign trade, maritime transportation, warehousing, and the Mariel logistics network. OFAC designated Grupo Empresarial del Comercio Exterior and Grupo Empresarial de Transporte Marítimo Portuario in July and warned foreign companies and financial institutions to proceed cautiously during the authorized wind-down period. Additional designations have included entities linked to Cuba’s maritime transportation structure.
The practical effect is wider than a list of named companies. International carriers, insurers, banks, freight forwarders, and suppliers may avoid a shipment if they believe any stage could involve a sanctioned entity. Even merchandise owned by a private Cuban business may still need to pass through infrastructure or legally required intermediaries that create compliance concerns.
This is one reason the stated policy of supporting private enterprise does not automatically protect private entrepreneurs from the effects of broader trade and transportation restrictions. The private sector depends on the same national supply chain, and that chain is under extraordinary pressure.
A humanitarian emergency with no simple solution
Cuba is now confronting a combination of repeated nationwide grid failures, prolonged daily blackouts, severe fuel shortages, shipping suspensions, port backlogs, weakened domestic transportation, and rising barriers to commerce. The World Food Programme reports that fuel constraints are affecting transportation and the distribution of essential goods, while energy shortages disrupt health services, water and sanitation, medicine storage, and food preservation.
No single shipment or donation can repair the national electrical grid or restore Cuba’s entire commercial system. Direct humanitarian assistance can still help people survive the immediate consequences. Food, hygiene products, basic medical supplies, rechargeable lighting, batteries, power banks, solar tools, and other practical necessities can make a meaningful difference when organized responsibly and delivered through trusted relationships.
The CreatiVrole Project is preparing to expand its emergency support for families and creative communities in Cuba. Donations can help us obtain essential supplies and cover the lawful transportation and distribution required to place them directly into people’s hands.
Support the Cuba Creative Relief & Food Security Project.
Sources and further reading
- Reuters: Cuba’s electric grid collapses again, less than a day after the previous blackout
- Associated Press: The effect of blackouts and summer heat on daily life
- Arturo Dominguez: Thousands of shipping containers pile up in Cuba
- EFE: Thousands of tons of United Nations food assistance held at Cuban ports
- 14ymedio: Fuel shortages prevent trucks from removing merchandise from Mariel
- Reuters: CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd suspend Cuba bookings
- Hapag-Lloyd: Official Cuba booking suspension notice
- World Food Programme: Current food, fuel, and supply-chain conditions in Cuba
- OFAC: Current guidance concerning recent Cuba designations
