Western Cuba blacks out after a fault at the Antonio Guiteras plant

A major blackout hit much of western Cuba, including Havana. Officials traced it to a fault at the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas. They estimated the outage would last at least 72 hours. Millions of people were left without power.

A blackout is a loss of electricity across a grid. Havana is the capital, so the failure was not confined to a rural line. Matanzas is the province of the Antonio Guiteras plant, which officials identified as the point of the fault. At least 72 hours was their estimate of duration, a minimum rather than a promise of restoration on the hour.

Millions without power describes the scale. The report did not give a tighter head count. It also did not list which provinces beyond the description of western Cuba and Havana were dark. The cause, as stated, was a fault at that one plant, not a stated act of sabotage.

The same day's Cuban news included a longer aviation cut. Air France announced it would suspend flights between France and Cuba from March 29 until at least June 15 because of a jet fuel shortage. That suspension is about fuel for aircraft, while the blackout is about electricity on the ground. Both belong to the 2026 Cuban crisis and the series of blackouts running since 2024.

Seventy-two hours is three days. Officials presented that span as an estimate of how long the western outage would last. A fault at a large thermal plant can pull a regional grid down, which is the sequence the report described. No restoration percentage was included for this particular failure.

Western Cuba, including Havana, lost power after a fault at the Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas. Officials said the blackout would last at least 72 hours and that millions were without electricity. Air France, separately, set a fuel-related halt on its Cuba flights from March 29 until at least June 15. The outage estimate and the flight suspension were the practical consequences reported.