A person drives a vintage American car past a floating generator that hasn't produced electricity for days, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, in Havana, Cuba.

Ramon Espinosa/AP

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Ramon Espinosa/AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Cuba's power grid was shut down Friday, leaving the entire country without power.

Due to the massive power outage, 10 million people on the Caribbean island are without electricity.

One of the country's largest power plants, the Antonio Guiteras power plant in the western province of Matanzas, failed shortly before noon on Friday. The outage led to a total failure of the Cuban power grid.

Then comes the power outage Days of continuous power outages.

Cuba's Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz blamed the problem on deteriorating infrastructure and fuel shortages exacerbated by Hurricane Milton, which made it difficult to reach the island with fuel shipments.

Addressing state television on Thursday evening, the prime minister said the government would prioritize power to residential areas and promised fuel shipments would arrive on the island in the coming days.

“We must say in all transparency that we had to paralyze all essential units of the economy in order to provide the population with a minimum of electricity,” he said. This has led to the closure of public schools until Monday and all government-owned businesses and industries unless they provide “essential” services.

Cuban officials have not given a timetable for when the power grid will be operational again. The massive power outage is a new low in a country already struggling with a deepening economic crisis and widespread food shortages