ACTIVISTS renewed calls today for an end to the 64-year-old US blockade of Cuba after the government said that the restricitions were hampering efforts to fix a massive power cut.

About half of the socialist island was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by all of it the following morning, after a power plant failed.

Havana’s electricity company said in a statement on Saturday that part of its western system had been disconnected “after the exit of one of the plants that was delivering service.”