HAVANA  –  Cuba’s government has announced it will halt all non-vital state services and businesses for three days as it battles an energy crisis that has caused marathon blackouts for much of the country.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero outlined the measures in an address Thursday night, saying the government had no choice but to “paralyse the economy.”

This includes shuttering all cultural activities and recreation centres such as discos, as well as public schools until Monday, Cuba’s state-run electricity union said in a release.

After initially announcing staggered geographical outages, the government declared a complete breakdown of the National Electric Power System shortly after 11am (15:00 GMT) on Friday morning, declaring it had been “totally disconnected.”

It added that the state electricity company “is working on its reestablishment.”

Marrero blamed the energy shortfall on a perfect storm well-known to most Cubans – deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand.

“The fuel shortage is the biggest factor,” Marrero said in the televised address, ironically punctuated by technical glitches.

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel pinned the problem on the US’s “financial and energy persecution,” which he said had made it “difficult to import fuel and other resources necessary.”

Facing US sanctions, Cuba has long relied on subsidised Venezuelan oil, but that supply is increasingly precarious as Venezuela grapples with its own economic woes. And Venezuela’s allies Russia and China, have failed to send enough aid to fill the gap, despite expressions of political solidarity.

Despite the crippling blackouts and shortages, Cuba “is not yet in a bottomless abyss,” assured Marrero.

Millions of Cubans, long accustomed to frequent outages, have been hit by dramatically longer power blackouts recently, often stretching for 12 hours. Outside the capital, Havana, electricity is most scarce, often unavailable for over 18 hours a day.

Compounding the problem was the passage of Hurricane Milton last week, whose heavy gusts and waves hampered deliveries of fuel from boats offshore to power plants, according to Cuban officials. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A woman works in a restaurant during a blackout in Havana. (Reuters)