SANTIAGO DE CUBA — Cubans in several locations on the island banged pots on Tuesday evening to express their anger about the latest nationwide power cut. Monday's nationwide outage was the third this year, and power had not yet been restored in Santiago de Cuba by Tuesday evening local time.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the spreading discontent among Cubans. "There are shortages of transport, food, medicines, there are lengthy power cuts lasting more than 20 hours, that causes dissatisfaction, nobody can be happy, the people are suffering," Díaz-Canel told reporters from Claridad. He added, "People bang pots, some with more anger than others. I say: direct your pot-banging towards our northern neighbours, who are the ones behind these power cuts."

US Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz placed the blame for the power cuts with the Cuban government. During a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Waltz said, "Change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people." He added, "There always seems to be enough power for the Cuban dictatorship."

Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the US of waging "multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare" against Cuba. The Trump administration has imposed fresh sanctions on Cuba and an effective blockade on oil shipments to the island, and has threatened to slap tariffs on countries which provide Cuba with fuel.

Some rural areas are plunged into darkness for up to 70 hours at a time, while urban areas have seen planned outages of up to 30 hours. The state electricity company did not say what had caused this latest unplanned incident. The two countries have been holding talks over recent weeks in private, but Rodríguez said on Tuesday that those talks "show no progress." He stated that Cuba remains open "to dialogue based on mutual respect and non-interference in Cuba's internal affairs."