LARGE parts of Cuba remained without power on Thursday nearly a day after a huge blackout hit the western part of the island in the latest outage caused by the intensification of the illegal United States blockade of the Caribbean island.

Crews worked overnight to repair a broken boiler at one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants, but officials have warned that it could take three to four days for power to be fully restored.

Local media reported that around 77 per cent of customers in Havana have had power returned, as well as 43 hospitals and 10 water supply stations. 

However, officials warned of low power generation and said some circuits that crews had reconnected were kicked offline again.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote on X that the electrical system is operating “in a limited capacity, prioritising basic services, primarily health and water supply.”

Local media reported that two power plants are offline because of a lack of petroleum.

Key oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the US attacked the South American country in early January. 

Then later that month, US President Donald Trump warned that he would impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.

Meanwhile, Jamaica’s foreign ministry said Thursday it was ending a decades-long agreement with Cuba involving its medical missions.

The unexpected move, announced by Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, comes as the US pushes for ending such missions, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “forced labour” and a “form of human trafficking.”

On Thursday night, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio slammed ongoing pressure from the US regarding the island’s medical missions.

“Something very twisted has to motivate the (US government) when for the sake of collective punishment against the people of Cuba, it pressures sovereign governments into depriving their own populations of quality health services,” he wrote on social media.