HAVANA, May 19 — It’s the middle of the night in Havana, but Alejandro Benitez is just getting down to work.The power is back on for the first time in 15 hours and Benitez, a...
‘Come once a week’: Selangor Sultan asks Ronnie Liu, DAP rep to visit Rukun Negara monument over pig farming controversy ‘A leopard cannot change its spots’: Lim Guan Eng labels Khairy, Umno ‘fake progressives’ over defence of Dr Akmal’s politics On rainy days, nothing beats a steaming bowl of noodle soup with handmade ‘sai dou’ fish balls at 1368 Fish Ball Noodles in SemenyihAlfredo Rodriguez, industrial designer and ISDI professor, studies during a power cut in Punta Brava , Havana on May 11, 2026.
Since February 2026, the fuel crisis in Cuba sparked by the oil blockade imposed by the United States has left universities without in-person classes. — AFP pic! Plus, enjoy an additional FREE RM10 when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with a min. cash-in of RM100 today. T&Cs apply.
HAVANA, May 19 — It’s the middle of the night in Havana, but Alejandro Benitez is just getting down to work. The power is back on for the first time in 15 hours and Benitez, a fourth-year architecture student, needs to get his assignment in fast before the electricity cuts out again.
Desperate times call for desperate measures in crisis-hit Cuba, where a US fuel blockade — part of a pressure campaign which Havana fears will culminate in a military intervention — has aggravated an energy crisis, leaving people without power for up to 20 hours a day. In February, the government moved university classes online, part of a raft of measures aimed at conserving electricity. But distance learning has proven challenging in a country with patchy internet and dwindling power supplies.
Students struggle in fields like architecture, which require regular feedback and direction from insructors.
“Having direct contact with the teacher is really important,” said 28-year-old Benitez, who has to ask all of his questions via WhatsApp or Telegram. With only one oil tanker mooring in Cuba in the last four months, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. The government announced that it had run out of diesel and fuel oil needed to power the generators that supplement the output of its seven dilapidated power plants.
Self-starters requiredSome courses which are central to her degree have been suspended or pared back. Then the responsibility is on the students in a system that requires them to be self-starters. Even the most zealous pupils face multiple hurdles. The discounted mobile data packages available to students do not have the capacity to download large folders, and it can take time for teachers to respond to questions.
Benitez’s partner, Alfredo Rodriguez, a 34-year-old industrial design professor, told AFP there were entire sections of the syllabus that his students “simply have not seen” because they need to be taught in person.
“We cannot make the same demands when we know that some students have no electricity or internet connection,” he explained. “I’m very concerned but I have no choice but to face the situation,” Luisa Odalys Destrade said with a sigh.
Alejandro Benitez Cuba Energy Crisis US Fuel Blockade Lisandra COTS Punta Brava
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