Great parts of the country were without electricity on Tuesday after undergoing a blackout for the third time in four months.
By Catholics for Catholics
Cuba is in deep trouble.
Great parts of Cuba were without electricity on Tuesday after undergoing a blackout for the third time in four months, which stressed the island’s intensifying energy and economic crises and rising political frictions with President Donald Trump.
According to Newsmax, power was slowly being reestablished to hospitals and some of the island’s 11 million residents, but government officials cautioned that its crumbling power network could falter again.
Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to daily outages and an increase in significant blackouts.
Government officials fault its maladies on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.
On Tuesday, Trump vowed coming action against Cuba’s socialist government as his moves against the island bring the U.S.’ longtime opponent deeper into crisis.
🚨 BREAKING: Sec. Marco Rubio's comments are resurfacing after Cuba gets slapped with a NATIONWIDE power outage because of no oil
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 16, 2026
"Cuba needs to change. It NEEDS to change!"
Rubio has been waiting for this moment. Cuba is about to go the way of Venezuela 🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/5pHQMoEMI1
A day after Trump’s sanctions on Venezuela, including a stop to vital oil exports to Cuba, contributed to Cuba’s latest nationwide blackout, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both said that the administration sees the island nation as the next country where the U.S. can expand its influence.
“Cuba right now is in very bad shape,” Trump said. “And we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon,” he added.
During a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with the prime minister of Ireland, Trump was asked about the U.S. seeking regime modification in Cuba; he gave way to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Of Cuban heritage, Rubio said the island “has an economy that doesn’t work in a political and governmental system. They can’t fix it.”
“So, they have to change dramatically,” Rubio said. “What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it.”
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