People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana, Cuba. (Photo by Yamil Lage / AFP)
Havana: Cuba was hit by worsening power outages on Thursday as the island's government said oil reserves had run out and rare protests broke out around the capital Havana.
Eastern Cuba was plunged Thursday into the latest of regular electricity shutdowns affecting the whole country, while people protested against power outages in neighborhoods around Havana, in the west of the island.
Oil reserves sent by Russia have now "run out," Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state television, describing the situation as "very tense."
"The heat continues to rise, and the impact of the blockade is indeed causing us significant harm... because we are still not receiving fuel."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed an offer of $100 million in aid on the condition that the assistance be distributed by the Catholic Church, bypassing the government.
"We are ready to hear the details of the proposal and how it would be implemented," said Cuba's top diplomat, Bruno Rodriguez, on social media.
A resident of San Miguel del Padron, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, told AFP that people had protested the power cuts by banging pots and pans on Wednesday evening.
Several other similar small protests were held in neighborhoods across the capital to express widespread frustration, according to accounts gathered by AFP.
"Turn on the lights!" shouted residents in Playa, a district in the western part of the capital.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday blamed a US-imposed "genocidal energy blockade" on Cuba for its grim energy shortages.
