Manatí Resident Speaks Out After 22-Hour Power Outage: "It's All a Sham"

A woman from Manatí in Las Tunas has taken to Facebook to decry an intolerable 22-hour power outage. Her video, posted under the name Lili Romero, has already garnered over 30,000 views.

In the video, Romero vents her frustration: "Over 22 hours without power, and now it's just on and off again. We haven't had even half an hour of electricity. They're destroying our appliances. How long will this continue in Manatí?"

Romero explains that after the prolonged blackout, the power service shifted to intermittent outages—known locally as "quita y pon"—without ever stabilizing. She directly accuses the local electric company, asking, "What are the people at the electric company doing? They're just patching lines and transformers!"

She criticizes the ever-changing excuses from the authorities, which never result in a solution. "It's all a sham: if it's not the lines being faulty or overloaded, it's something else. Now they're distributing by circuit, and that doesn't work either," she points out.

Romero also highlights the high cost of the service. "We have to keep paying for an expensive service that doesn't even work properly, not even on Sundays when we need to do laundry and get things ready for school and work," she laments.

She ends with a warning: "We can't keep putting up with this, folks. We're going to have to take action."

Another resident commented on the video, elaborating on the municipality's plight: "They claim they don't have fuel to fetch the transformer from Las Tunas and no crane to move it. They're just trying to keep us quiet, but it's really a blatant disrespect to the people of Manatí."

The video struck a chord with many online, sparking outrage. "This is completely out of control, and no one cares. It's madness," one woman commented. Another added, "They're slowly killing us." A man was more direct: "No one cares... We need to unite and remove them all once and for all."

Several people pointed to the disparity between the ruling elite and the general populace. "Take a stroll through Siboney and where the top government officials live... You'll see them enjoying their air conditioning and full electrical services. They never lose power, and their fridges are always running," a woman remarked.

From Havana, another commenter confirmed that the crisis isn't confined to the eastern part of the country: "Here we go 50, 60 hours without power, and when it does come back, it's the same on and off nonsense."

At the start of September, the Electric Company of Las Tunas reported 78 damaged transformers across the province.

Romero's video adds to a growing chorus of complaints in a year plagued by blackouts affecting over 70% of the nation, seven total collapses of the National Electric System, and a record generation deficit of 2,341 MW in July.