S8 Ep1133: Evan Ellis reports on the collapse of Cuba's electric grid, marking the third major blackout in nine days. While the island devolves into ruin, the Trump administration weighs military action against potential negotiations with the Castro family, as China
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
Evan Ellis reports on the collapse of Cuba's electric grid, marking the third major blackout in nine days. While the island devolves into ruin, the Trump administration weighs military action against potential negotiations with the Castrofamily, as China and Russia provide only minimal, symbolic economic and political support. (9)
Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | This is a high risk investment and you shouldvanellis of the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. |
| 0:53.7 | Cuba, Reuters, Cuba's national Electric Grid collapses for the third time in July. |
| 0:59.4 | Subhead, Cuba's National Power Grid collapsed. |
| 1:02.1 | The Energy Ministry said, marking the third major blackout in nine days on the island of about 10 million people. |
| 1:09.7 | Professor, a very good evening to you. |
| 1:11.6 | We've watched Cuba from afar, now we're watching it up close. |
| 1:15.0 | The energy grid has been at risk since the Venezuela affair cut off the supply of oil that had been sustaining the regime in Cuba. |
| 1:23.9 | We're also told around the edges that the U.S. is in conversation with some elements of the leadership in Havana, |
| 1:31.1 | mentioning the Castro family or a castor relative, a grandson, a grandnephew in some fashion. |
| 1:36.9 | But there's a drift here. |
| 1:38.9 | It's not clear that there's movement. |
| 1:41.1 | There have been contradictory statements of defiance by Havana. Where is this with the collapsing grid? Because there's nothing unpredictable about what's happening there. The island is devolving into ruin. Good day to you. |
| 1:55.9 | Good day to you, John. My sense is that indeed, we are in a bit of a stalemate here, but things for the Cuban people are going in a very negative direction. As you pointed out, this last power outage was the third nationwide outage in nine days. And of course, that's to be expected, given that Cuba has long run out of fuel. The vast majority of its power grid is powered by petroleum |
| 2:21.5 | products, which are not there, which, of course, with the absence of petroleum also to fuel, |
| 2:27.3 | transport and generators and other things contributes to its lack in refrigerators and |
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