The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has attributed the blackout that the country has been suffering since last Friday to the “intensified” US blockade on the island. In addition, the situation has been aggravated by the impact of tropical storm ‘Oscar’, which has caused flooding and forced the evacuation of people in the east of the island, as revealed by the Cuban president.
“The energy emergency has a lot to do with the intensified blockade and the entire economic war that the United States Government is waging against our country,” Díaz-Canel said in a press conference published on social networks in which he appeared wearing the olive green military uniform of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Díaz-Canel has thus denounced that “we have not had stable fuel supplies so that the system can operate at its full capacity and with all its stability”, which “caused” the blackout last Friday, which involved a “total disconnection” of the system.
Since the blackout, specialists have been working to restore the supply, “but it really is a complicated situation”, “a totally challenging situation from a technological point of view”, Díaz-Canel has acknowledged.
Meanwhile, “the country continues to make efforts to obtain fuel supplies” and to obtain spare parts to recover electrical production, “which is greatly affected”.
“In the midst of all this tense situation that we have been experiencing in recent weeks, we must once again highlight the understanding and behavior of our people and above all the solidarity of the people among neighbors at the community level”, he stressed.
The Cuban leader also stressed that the civil defense system “has worked very seriously,” as have the defense councils, while the brigades for the recovery phase are being formed.
DISTURBANCES IN PUBLIC ORDER
Díaz-Canel criticized the “disturbances in public order” that he attributed to “a minimum number of people, most of them in a state of intoxication” and to “operators of the counterrevolution.”
“They have behaved in an indecent manner. They have tried to provoke disturbances in public order. They have tried to commit some vandalism and have tried to disturb the citizen tranquility of our people,” he reproached.
Others “act under the guidelines given to them by the operators of the Cuban counterrevolution from abroad.” “We want to confirm that the revolution will never tolerate this type of conduct and that all will be prosecuted accordingly with the rigor contemplated by the revolutionary laws,” he warned.
At the same time, he has expressed the willingness of the authorities to “respond to any concern of the population, provided that it is done in an efficient, civilized, organized and disciplined manner.” “But we will not accept or allow anyone to act by provoking acts of vandalism and much less disturbing the peace of our people, and that is a conviction and that is a principle of our revolution,” he stressed.
