LatinNews Daily - 21 September 2026

*Cuba’s state power company, Unión Eléctrica (UNE), has announced that power has been restored following another national blackout which took place on 18 September, in what is the eighth national blackout so far this year, with two most recently taking place in August. UNE said that yesterday’s electricity supply stood at 1,160 megawatts (MW) at peak time while maximum demand was 2,673MW. The outage is the latest sign of the impact of the fuel blockade imposed by the US administration led by President Donald Trump amid a maximum pressure campaign on Cuba, which has left the country without fuel oil and diesel, as part of efforts to push Cuba to make economic and political reforms. In another sign of this pressure, on 18 September the Costa Rican government, which under the conservative President Laura Fernández is a firm Trump ally, officially confirmed it was severing diplomatic ties with Havana, having announced in March that it was closing its embassy in Cuba and withdrawing diplomatic staff, and had requested that Cuba reciprocate.