Cuba's national electricity grid has collapsed three times in ten days, leaving millions of residents across the 9.5-million-person Caribbean island without power for stretches of up to 72 hours amid summer temperatures exceeding 35°C. The blackouts stem from a combination of a six-month US oil blockade — part of Washington's pressure campaign against the communist government — and an ageing thermoelectric infrastructure that energy experts describe as too old and broken to cope. The crisis is accelerating a broader societal unravelling, with food spoiling, water pumps failing, crime rising, and public protests spreading, as the Cuban government admits it lacks both fuel and the spare parts needed to restore stable power.