Great communist successes: Cuba the “sugar bowl of the world” now has to import sugar

Photo by Ansalmo Juvaga

By Jo Nova

Things were dire in October, and they aren’t getting better:

Spare a thought for the people of Cuba. In October, Cuba suffered through a week of extended blackouts when 7 out of 8 power plants were out of action. After power was restored it meant people in Havana, the capital city, got 4 or 5 hours of electricity a day. (So they only had 20 hour blackouts each day, instead of 24 hour ones). According to The National, people often travel by horse-drawn carts rather than motor cars, and in the countryside, it’s a common sight to see ploughs being pulled by oxen. “Motorways connecting major cities are eerily quiet. ”

Not surprisingly, in the last few years, ten percent of the entire population has left (mostly for Florida). Unfortunately for Cuba, these were the working age adults. Predictably, the loss of productive workers and productive electricity means the loss of product, and so it has come to pass:

Cuba Runs Out of Sugar

John Hindraker, Powerline

This is like Libya running out of sand: Cuba is now an importer of sugar:

The Cuban government acknowledged that […]

Failed State: Since 2021, 10% of the population left Cuba, and now the country has fuel shortages and blackouts

Photo by Ansalmo Juvaga

By Jo Nova

Seen on X

Spare a thought for the people of Cuba

The situation went from awful to something much worse.

They ran out of working electrical plants ten days ago, and endured blackouts lasting for four straight days, including one hurricane. Reports coming out suggest that though electricity is partly restored, it’s often only for four hours a day. Not surprisingly, the country is semi-paralyzed — schools are still closed and “labor services” are largely non-existent, apart from hospitals, funerals and efforts to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Oscar.

Soon they may run out of people. People were fleeing Cuba before things got this bad.

The big blackout began on Friday October 18th. In the next four days they restarted the grid three or four times only to have it crash again, and while power is sort of mostly restored the structural problems appear to be dire. Nothing really sums the state of the communist economy better than one line on Vox news which described the moment the big blackout began:

“Seven of the country’s eight thermoelectric plants, which generate power for the island, were […]