Cuban law enforcement and judicial institutions have opened more than 460 criminal probes between 2025 and the first half of 2026 focused on coordinated and individual attacks against the country’s critical electrical infrastructure, according to official statements shared on social platform X.
State-run newspaper Granma, the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party, has detailed that the most widespread offense documented in these investigations is the theft of dielectric oil from high-voltage power transformers. This illegal act is formally categorized as sabotage against critical national infrastructure, due to its far-reaching harm to the national economy, domestic security, and public daily order.
To date, more than 300 formal complaints for this specific crime have been registered across every Cuban province. Officials note that the highest rates of incidence have been recorded in five regions: Matanzas, Ciego de Avila, Mayabeque, Santiago de Cuba, and Artemisa.
The stolen dielectric oil is typically diverted to the country’s unregulated informal market, where it is often resold and repurposed as cheap alternative fuel for consumer and commercial use, a practice that creates additional safety hazards for communities beyond the damage to the power grid.
Under the current Cuban Penal Code, sabotage against critical infrastructure carries steep legal penalties, with sentences ranging from seven to 30 years of imprisonment, up to life incarceration, or in the most severe cases, the death penalty. Cuba’s Attorney General’s Office has confirmed that it has authorized pre-trial detention for 87 percent of all individuals accused in these infrastructure attack cases, and has formally requested strict, maximum-allowed sentences for the defendants as part of the judicial process.
In the official social media statement, government representatives stressed that all judicial rulings issued in these cases have followed full due process protocols, and reflect the gravity with which Cuban authorities treat these criminal acts that threaten public welfare and national stability.