Cuba edges toward breakdown as power cuts and US meddling push society to brink

When Cuba’s national grid collapses, as it did for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday, a collective groan spreads across its cities and people wonder, again, whether the island’s antiquated electricity system may soon become unrecoverable.

The 777-mile Caribbean island of 9.5 million people has been sweltering under a six-month-long oil blockade imposed by the United States, part of a pressure campaign to bring down its communist government. But the parlous state of Cuba’s infrastructure goes far further back.