Cuba partially restores power amid US oil blockade

The country's energy officials said they had reconnected the grid from westernmost Pinar del Rio province to Holguin, near the eastern tip of the island. Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest city, remained offline, the reports said, but would be reconnected to the grid by day's end.

Nearly half of the capital Havana had seen power restored, according to Cuba's mid-day state newscast, as grid workers successfully fired the Antonio Guiteras power plant, a decades-old behemoth that underpins the country's power grid.

Despite the progress, most Cubans remain without power. Electricity generation, hampered by dire fuel shortages and antiquated power plants, is still far below what is necessary to cover demand, providing scarce relief for Cubans already exhausted from months of blackouts.