[RE]

Looks like Cuba is dropping off the map as a tourist destination due to the regularly scheduled blackouts which take out everything from A/C to ATMs, cell phone communications and their water and sewage systems.  Since tourism is one of the few ways Cuba gets FOREX with which to buy energy, this creates a positive feedback loop.  Less energy-->less tourism--->less money--->less energy, rinse & repeat.

Not surprisingly, there are now reports of civil unrest due to the continuing blackouts, along with increased crime on darkened streets.  The only thing surprising about this is how long it has taken for this type of social breakdown to take hold.

Other than reporting about the expanding problem though, nobody has offered up any solution to the widening crisis so the average Jose 6-pack gets to just twist in the wind as the country circles the toilet bowl of industrial civilization.  For collapse observers, it's a great window into the near future for many smaller and highly indebted countries like Greece and South Africa.  Still probably a few years away for the big economies like the FSoA and China, but it will get here in due time also.  Both countries have huge debt problems as well, but are TBTF and have some control over the availability of credit.  Not infinite control though.

In the meantime life in the Belly of the Beast is BAU, and most people look at what's happening in Cuba and think "it can't happen here".  They are in for a rude awakening when the time comes.

https://havanatimes.org/news/germany-issues-a-security-alert-for-travel-to-cuba/

Germany Issues a Security Alert for Travel to Cuba

RE

[K-Dog]

Sanctions are violence.  Being out of sight and out of mind does not change reality.  If sanctions were lifted Cuba would be fine.

[TDoS]

Sanctions are violence.  Being out of sight and out of mind does not change reality.  If sanctions were lifted Cuba would be fine.

And someone begins shipping them oil again on the cheap. And then they'd be...Central/South American "fine". And we have a convicted criminal becoming President in a month or so because we all know how that turns out!

[RE]

Puerto Rico rejoining Cuba as the canaries in the coal mine of power outage in the western hemisphere.  I'll bet the countries along the old Soviet Union border with the west probably have similar percentages in terms of hours of grid power available.

We're definitely seeing the beginning of systemic blackouts and de facto rationing of energy as the poorer, marginal countries on the periphery of industrial civilization are triaged off the grid for political or economic reasons, or have the misfortune of being in the way of a climate or geologic disaster.  Include also locations losing power courtesy of ongoing missile strikes and war related terrorism.

Of course as these places lose access to power, it's GOOD NEWZ for the places still wired up, since it will make their energy cheaper from demand destruction.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/31/us/puerto-rico-power-outage/index.html

RE

[K-Dog]

PROGRESSIVE.INTERNATIONAL 2026-03-18

Defend Cuba From US Efforts to Crush It

The U.S. government under Trump and Rubio is intensifying its decades-long economic blockade of Cuba to deliberately create conditions of starvation and collapse.

The barbaric and lethal executive order signed on January 29, 2026, is economic warfare.  Trump deliberately engineers starvation and collapse.  I am so glad I never voted for this cretin.  If I had ever voted for him I think I would have to get off my ass and atone for my mistake in some way.

So it is good I never made that mistake.  I'll leave it for others to do the atoning.

COMMONDREAMS.ORG 2026-03-17

Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba

Bombs have not fallen, but Trump’s economic warfare is killing children and causing deep suffering for the people of this island nation.

CUBAHEADLINES.COM 2026-03-19

Russian Oil Ships Bound for Cuba: A Defiant Move Against U.S. Energy Blockade

The Russian oil tanker, 'Anatoly Kolodkin', owned by the state-run shipping company Sovcomflot and under sanctions from the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, is en route to the Matanzas oil terminal with a cargo of 730,000 barrels of crude. This significant energy shipment to Cuba marks the first in over two months, with an expected arrival on Monday, March 23.

Cuba has been without oil since January 9, following Mexico's last delivery.  After Nicolás Maduro was apprehended in an operation sanctioned by Trump on January 3rd.

[RE]

AFRICANEWS.COM 2026-08-19

Libya’s power crisis deepens as UN warns of fuel diversion and infrastructure strain

Libya’s worsening power crisis strains infrastructure and fuels public anger as outages persist despite heavy monthly fuel-import spending. UN envoy Hanna Serwaa Tetteh told the Security Council suspected diversion of subsidized fuel in electricity and security sectors demands stronger oversight, accountability, and investigations to ensure essential services.

Soon to be "Summer in Vegas" & "Summer in LA" as well.

RE