Alone with emergency energy measures in Cuba, measure of deep crisis.

Reuters was alone with a story on Nov 11 that Cuba’s communist government has ordered all state enterprises to adopt “extreme measures” to cut energy usage through the end of the year to avoid blackouts like those that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Reuters got access to official orders that warned of a “critical” energy shortage requiring the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine. Obtaining genuinely fresh information in Cuba, especially on economic issues, is extremely difficult but Reuters was again ahead of the field in indicating the depth of the island’s crisis