The UK Foreign Office has issued a warning to UK tourists and holidaymakers heading to Cuba. Brits heading outside the European Union for their next holiday have been warned over problems in Cuba, amid a series of power outages.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) warned: “Cuba experienced a nationwide electrical grid shutdown from October 18 to October 21 following the failure of a major power plant. The power supply has been restored in many areas, but a schedule of outages remains in place to restrict electricity usage.
“In the wake of Hurricane Oscar, basic services are still affected in the east of the country. You should take precautions including conserving water, food, and mobile phone charge, and monitor local media for updates, including on power cut schedules.”
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Cuba’s national electrical grid first crashed around midday on Friday after the island’s largest power plant shut down, sowing chaos and leaving around 10 million people in the dark. The repeated failures mark a major setback in the government’s efforts to quickly restore power to exhausted residents.
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel appeared Sunday evening on national television dressed in olive drab military attire, encouraging Cubans to air their grievances over the situation with discipline and civility. “We are not going to accept nor allow anyone to act with vandalism and much less to alter the tranquility of our people,” said Diaz-Canel, who is rarely seen in uniform.
Energy and mines minister Vicente de la O Levy said on Sunday he recognized the blackouts were bothersome to residents, but said most Cubans understood and supported government efforts to restore power. “It is Cuban culture to cooperate,” O Levy told reporters on Sunday. “Those isolated and minimal incidents that do exist, we catalog them as incorrect, as indecent.”
Earlier on Sunday, Cuba had restored power to 160,000 clients in Havana just prior to the grid’s Sunday collapse, giving some residents a glimmer of hope.
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