Reggaeton boomed in a neighborhood bar in Old Havana on a recent night, when, suddenly, the music stopped and everything went dark. A U.S. blockade on oil shipments to Cuba has plunged the island into its worst energy crisis in modern history. Demographers say Cuba is undergoing one of the world’s fastest population declines — a 25% drop in just four years — as birth rates fall and emigration soars. As the U.S. seized control of Venezuela’s oil industry, the impacts immediately rocked Cuba, which had long relied on subsidized oil shipments from Maduro’s regime. At the darkened bar in Old Havana, workers scrambled to light candles and serve beer that, without refrigeration, would soon go warm.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 23, 2026 01:37 UTC