Cuba has run out of diesel and fuel oil, energy minister says, as US blockade pushes island to brink

Minister Vicente de la O Levy says ‘Cuba is open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel’ as rolling power blackouts increase

Protests have erupted across Havana after Cuba’s energy minister revealed that the country had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil amid a US blockade that has strangled the island of fuel.

Residents took to the city’s streets late on Wednesday shouting “turn on the lights”, banging pots and pans, and setting fire to piles of rubbish to express their misery in the face of blackouts which can last 22 hours or more.