至暗时刻的古巴：特朗普的石油封锁，与一座海岛的能源崩溃

Today I want to discuss a rather heavy topic — the Caribbean island nation of Cuba is mired in a rare energy crisis.

In a nutshell: the entire country keeps falling into island-wide blackouts.

This very July, within a single week, all of Cuba went dark twice; and counting from the start of the year, such nationwide blackouts have occurred four times.

Each time the grid drops, the whole island sinks into total darkness at night.

How does a country fall to the point of being unable to even generate power?

Trace it to the source, and the problem lies with oil.

Cuba's power generation relies overwhelmingly on burning oil, yet its own output covers only around 40%; the larger remainder has long depended on imports.

And it is precisely this import lifeline that has been forcibly severed from outside.

The one who did it is the US and the Trump administration.

Early this year, Trump signed an executive order branding Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" — effectively a de facto "oil blockade."

He issued a stark warning: any country that dares supply Cuba with oil, the US will hit with hefty tariffs.

Under such threats, nations weighed the stakes and, unwilling to offend the US over Cuba, halted supplies one after another.

In the past, the one that long propped up Cuba was fellow-leftist Venezuela.

But later, Trump moved on Venezuela as well, ousting its leader through military action.

Venezuela, unable even to save itself, then cut off its oil and financial support to Cuba.

With these lifelines severed together, Cuba's oil reserves ran dry at a visible pace.

Since the start of the year, only one Russian tanker delivered it a single shipload of oil, back in March.

To make matters worse, Cuba's grid was already beyond repair — most of its infrastructure stuck in the Cold War era, long decrepit and constantly failing.

An aging grid plus a fuel cutoff has pushed the country to the brink of collapse.

Yet what truly wrenches the heart is never these cold numbers, but the individual Cubans behind them.

On this perennially hot island, with no power, not even a fan will turn at home, and the heat is stifling.

After dark, the whole city is pitch black — even the traffic lights are out — and getting around becomes perilous; many can only light candles, and with no gas to cook, they retreat to the courtyard to burn firewood.

And of all the hardships, the deadliest is at the hospitals.

The blackouts disable refrigerators, spoiling vast quantities of medicine, and all the power-dependent equipment simply stops working.

A senior UN official issued a grave warning over this: for lack of essential medicine, some children are dying.

The cold data bears it out too — in recent months, Cuba's infant mortality has nearly doubled.

So why is Trump so intent on driving Cuba into such a desperate corner?

Ultimately, it's a campaign of maximum pressure: by making life in Cuba utterly unbearable, he aims to topple a government that has held on for decades and install a pro-US regime.

After all, the feud between the US and Cuba has festered for a full sixty-plus years; this is merely its most intense act yet.

Back in the last century, Cuba took a socialist road utterly different from America's, and ever since, Washington's blockade has scarcely truly eased.

Over more than half a century, Cubans have grown used to shortages of all kinds, yet even so, this energy collapse is the most dire in decades.

For that very reason, the UN and many rights groups have spoken out, condemning the approach — because those it truly punishes are innocent civilians, not the powerful in charge.

Facing this desperate strait, Cuba is not sitting still to await its fate.

It has launched its boldest set of economic reforms in decades, while speeding up solar-equipment imports from China, pinning its power-generation hopes on the sun overhead.

But renewables currently make up less than a fifth of its consumption; truly filling the gap is no overnight feat.

Tellingly, as the US presses harder and old partners bow out, the hand reaching out to Cuba is, increasingly, China's.

From solar panels to all manner of infrastructure, China's presence across Latin America is growing ever clearer.

This game of chess is no longer just about the fortunes of Cuba alone.

Through these seemingly endless days, ordinary Cubans can only grit their teeth and endure, day after day, in darkness and heat.

On one side, the cool maneuvering on a great-power chessboard; on the other, ordinary households for whom a single lamp or fan has become a luxury.

The vast gulf between them is what, in this story, leaves one most silent.

Okay, that's where we'll leave this somewhat heavy story today; see you next time.