AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Cuba, lights are starting to come back on four days into a nationwide blackout. This darkness fell during the country's worst economic crisis in decades. Emily Green reports.
EMILY GREEN, BYLINE: Life in Cuba is hard, really hard. Since the beginning of the year, residents have endured rolling blackouts that often last eight hours a day. Public transportation was slashed because there wasn't enough fuel to run the buses. The country's communist government started limiting allocations of bread only to children and pregnant women. And then came Friday, when the entire country went dark after the electrical grid collapsed.
CLARIBEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "We are living a nightmare. It's like a horror movie," says Claribel, a mother and grandmother living in Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest city. NPR is withholding the full names of the Cubans interviewed for this story because of the risk of retaliation from the government. Claribel's husband had to scavenge for coal so that she could cook the chicken she had in a refrigerator before it spoiled. She turned it into a soup she hopes will last several days.
CLARIBEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "What are we going to do? We'll die of hunger. We have to invent something," she says.
In the capital of Havana, these residents gathered on the streets and played dominoes. School has been canceled through Wednesday, and Havana's international airport has been operating on an emergency basis only. Nohemi, a woman in her 20s, spent Sunday night outside.
NOHEMI: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "It's horrible - so many hours in darkness," she says.
NOHEMI: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "You can't protest, whistle or even ask questions because you will be imprisoned," she says.
(SOUNDBITE OF POTS CLANGING)
GREEN: Still, some bold residents clanged on pots in protest over the multi-day power outage.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT MIGUEL DIAZ-CANEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, warned the government won't tolerate dissidence or vandalism.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DIAZ-CANEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "Everyone will be processed rigorously under our revolutionary laws," he said in a televised address. The Cuban government blames its problems on a decades-old U.S. embargo that has made it very difficult for the island to purchase fuel and food.
(SOUNDBITE OF POTS CLANGING)
GREEN: By Monday morning, lights had started to flicker on in Havana, but few expected it to last. With gas scarce, people were cooking on wood stoves.
MANUEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "The situation here in Cuba is dire," says Manuel, a resident of Havana who works as a security guard.
MANUEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "Not just because of the blackouts but everything. Even when one has money to buy food, there isn't any to be found," he says. Manuel's entire family has fled Cuba in recent years and migrated to the U.S. - his mom, brother, uncles and cousins. He and his wife are also trying to leave, joining the biggest mass exodus in Cuba's history. For NPR News, I'm Emily Green, in Mexico City.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALEX VAUGHN SONG, "SO BE IT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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