Cuba's national electrical system suffered a complete collapse on Sunday, plunging the entire island of 11 million people into darkness as Donald Trump declared he expects to have the "honor of taking Cuba" and can do "anything I want with it."
The confluence of humanitarian crisis and geopolitical threat represents a dangerous moment in Caribbean history, reviving Cold War-era anxieties about American intervention in the region.
According to CNN, the power grid failure marks the worst energy crisis in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The state electrical company reported that the entire national system went offline Sunday evening, leaving homes, hospitals, and critical infrastructure without power.
Cuban officials attributed the collapse to deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages, and decades of underinvestment exacerbated by US sanctions. The island's electrical grid, built largely in the 1970s and 1980s with Soviet assistance, has suffered from chronic maintenance problems and lack of spare parts.
Hours after the grid collapse, Trump told reporters he believes he will have the "honor" of annexing Cuba, according to Reuters. When asked about the legal and diplomatic implications, the US president responded, "I can do anything I want with it."
