Lights Out in Cuba
For members of Ottawa-Gatineau's Cuban community, the past week has been filled with anxiety and helplessness. Cuba's national power grid collapsed on Monday, leaving millions of people across the island without electricity, and cutting off families from loved ones abroad.
Cuban officials announced the grid had been reconnected on Tuesday, but widespread blackouts have continued. The underlying cause is an ongoing fuel shortage tied to U.S. oil supply restrictions, leaving the country with little capacity to keep the lights on.
A Gatineau Family's Struggle
Kirenia Carbonell, a Gatineau resident with family in Cuba's Holguín province, describes a situation that's both heartbreaking and frightening. Without power, her family can't refrigerate food or use cooking gas. Multiple households have been pooling resources just to get a meal on the table.
"Last time I spoke with them, they told us we have a little bit for tomorrow," she said. "We don't know what we have for the day after."
The family's main staples right now are chickpeas and rice. Alternative fuels like coal, sometimes used for cooking when gas runs out, have become too expensive for most families to access.
Sending Help Is Nearly Impossible
For Ottawa-area Cubans who want to send supplies or money home, the obstacles are stacking up. Carlos Polinario, a Cuban-Canadian living in Ottawa, explains that third-party delivery services that normally courier goods to the island are struggling to operate without fuel.
"It's hard to get there. There's no oil, there's no gas for motorcycles or cars that they usually use to distribute this food," he said. Packages that do make it through risk spoiling before anyone can pick them up.
Money transfers offer limited relief, bank machines need electricity to work.
Getting a Message Through
Even basic communication has become a logistical challenge. Polinario says he hears from his cousin only every two to three days. To send a message, his cousin has to travel near a military base at night, one of the few places with a cell signal, risking detection.
Recent protests in Cuba against the blackouts have added another layer of instability, further complicating communications.
For Ottawa's Cuban diaspora, the helplessness of watching from afar is immense. The community is doing what it can, but with every channel blocked, food, money, even a simple text. There's little to do but wait and hope.
Source: CBC Ottawa
