The Preamble

The Preamble

Cuba Goes Dark

The US oil blockade is pushing Cuba to a breaking point

Elise Labott's avatar
Elise Labott
Mar 25, 2026
∙ Paid

For three months, Cuba has received no oil. The island’s power grid has collapsed into rolling blackouts lasting up to 20 hours. Hospitals are postponing surgeries. Garbage rots on Havana’s streets.

President Donald Trump, surveying the wreckage his administration helped create, declared casually to reporters at the White House last week that he expects …

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Elise Labott's avatar
A guest post by
Elise Labott
Global affairs journalist. I write Cosmopolitics on Substack.
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