Cuba’s leaders fiddle the figures

Summer is never easy in tropical Cuba. Suffocating heat and humidity conspire with a dysfunctional electricity supply to highlight government inadequacy and incompetence. Patience tends to fray. This year promises to be crabbier than usual. The country’s feeble grid was already stretched to breaking point last winter, when electricity demand was lower. Now blackouts are longer than ever. Most residents of Havana, the capital, count themselves lucky to have power for more than a few hours a day. They complain of food spoiling in fridges and sleepless nights in smothering, breezeless bedrooms. And anti-government protests may be on the way. The last big one, in July 2021, led to hundreds of arrests.