The state responsible for the collapse is now profiting from the desperation it created.
In the midst of a historic energy collapse that leaves Cubans without power for up to 19 hours a day, the state-run retailer CIMEX has begun selling a solar fan priced at nearly three months of the average Cuban wage — marketing it as a solution to blackouts the state itself helped create. The product is not truly aimed at those suffering on the island, but at the diaspora abroad, whose remittance dollars the state seeks to capture. It is an old and bitter irony: the institution that presides over a crisis positioning itself as the merchant of relief, while most of those in darkness cannot afford to buy the light.
- Cuba's electrical grid reached a record deficit of 2,153 megawatts on May 13, plunging 65% of the country into simultaneous blackouts lasting beyond 19 hours daily throughout May.
- Into this crisis, CIMEX launched a $41.20 solar fan — a sum that represents nearly three months of the average Cuban salary — with the slogan 'No more blackouts! Energy crisis: we have the solution.'
- The product is structurally designed for diaspora buyers abroad, allowing families to send dollars home while the state intercepts the foreign currency, leaving island residents as recipients but not buyers.
- Social media erupted with dark humor and anger: users reported the fan failing after 48 hours, flagged the same model selling for $35 internationally, and mocked the state's promotional language with laughing emojis.
- The backlash reveals something deeper than price outrage — a widespread collapse of trust in the state's ability or willingness to deliver genuine solutions to the suffering it has engineered.
The state-run retailer CIMEX is selling a 12-inch solar fan for $41.20 through its online platform, marketing it as the answer to Cuba's devastating blackouts. The Daytron C108 includes a solar panel, LED bulbs, and a USB charging port, and can be ordered internationally and delivered to select provinces or picked up in Old Havana. The pitch is blunt: 'No more blackouts. Energy crisis: we have the solution.'
The arithmetic tells a different story. Cuba's average monthly wage in 2025 was roughly 6,930 pesos — between $13 and $15 at informal exchange rates. The fan costs nearly three months of that salary, placing it far beyond the reach of most people living on the island. The product is aimed instead at the diaspora, a mechanism for families abroad to send dollars home while the state captures the foreign currency.
The timing is particularly stark. On May 13, Cuba's electrical deficit hit a record 2,153 megawatts, affecting 65 percent of the country at once. By mid-May, the grid could generate barely 1,070 megawatts against a demand of 2,545. In Havana, blackouts have exceeded 19 hours a day — leaving people unable to refrigerate food, work remotely, or charge the devices that keep them connected.
The CIMEX Facebook post drew swift and caustic responses. Users called the fans defective, noted the same model sells for $35 elsewhere, and mocked the state's slogans with strings of laughing emojis. One woman reported her fan lasted just 48 hours. What the backlash exposes is not only frustration with a price tag, but a deeper erosion of faith — in a state that created the crisis, now profiting from the desperation it produced, while most of those sitting in the dark cannot afford the solution being sold in their name.
The state-run retailer CIMEX is selling a 12-inch solar fan for $41.20 through its online platform, marketing it explicitly as a fix for the blackouts that have crippled Cuba. The Daytron C108 comes with a solar panel, two LED bulbs, and a USB port to charge phones. It can be ordered from anywhere in the world through envioscuba.com and shipped to homes in Havana, Matanzas, Artemisa, and Mayabeque, or picked up at a store in Old Havana. The pitch is straightforward: "No more blackouts!" and "Energy crisis: we have the solution."
The problem is arithmetic. According to Cuba's National Bureau of Statistics and Information, the average monthly wage on the island in 2025 was 6,930 Cuban pesos—roughly $13 to $15 at informal exchange rates. The fan costs nearly three months of that salary. For most Cubans living in Cuba, it is simply not for sale. The product is designed instead for the diaspora abroad, a way for families outside the island to send dollars home while the state captures the foreign currency.
The timing is brutal. On May 13, Cuba's electrical deficit hit a record 2,153 megawatts, affecting 65 percent of the country simultaneously. By May 17, the state's electrical utility reported it could generate only 1,070 megawatts against a demand of 2,545 megawatts. In Havana, blackouts have exceeded 19 hours a day throughout May. People are living in darkness and heat, unable to refrigerate food, unable to work from home, unable to charge the devices that connect them to the outside world.
The irony—that the state responsible for the electrical collapse is now profiting from the desperation it created—did not escape the people scrolling through CIMEX's Facebook post. The comments are a mix of dark humor and genuine anger. One user called the fans "very bad." Another mocked the slogan with a string of laughing emojis: "Tremendous propaganda. No more blackouts!" A third pointed out that the same model sells for $35 elsewhere and asked, sarcastically, how many CIMEX wanted to move at that price. A fourth user shared her own experience: the fan she bought lasted 48 hours.
What emerges from the social media backlash is not just frustration with a price tag. It is skepticism about whether the state can deliver anything of value, even when it is selling a product designed to solve a problem the state itself created. The fan becomes a symbol of a larger failure—not just the failure of the electrical grid, but the failure of the system to acknowledge that most Cubans cannot afford the solutions it is offering. The state is selling hope to the diaspora while the people on the island sit in the dark.
Citas Notables
The fan lasted only 48 hours— CIMEX customer on Facebook
You sell it very expensive—the same product costs $35 elsewhere— Facebook commenter questioning CIMEX pricing
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why would CIMEX sell something so expensive when they know the average wage is $13 a month?
Because the customer isn't the person in Cuba. It's the relative in Miami or Madrid with dollars. The state gets the foreign currency, and the diaspora gets to send something home that might actually work.
But the product itself—does it work?
Not reliably, according to the people who bought it. One person said hers lasted two days. That matters because it suggests the state isn't even delivering on the basic promise of the thing.
So it's a double failure—unaffordable and unreliable.
Exactly. And the cruelty is that CIMEX is marketing it as the solution to the very crisis they're responsible for. They're selling the cure for a disease they caused.
What does the backlash tell us about how Cubans see the state right now?
That they've stopped believing it. The jokes and the sarcasm—that's not anger anymore. That's exhaustion. People are pointing out that you can get the same fan cheaper elsewhere, that it breaks immediately, that the whole thing is absurd. They're not asking for better. They're just documenting the lie.