Customer says faulty inverter paralyzes service at bank on 23rd and J

Customer Maikel Rodriguez Remedios reported that failures in a power inverter left the bank at the intersection of 23rd and J streets in Havana's Vedado neighborhood without service even when electricity was available. Writing on Facebook under the name Maikel RodRem, he said the branch had operated for barely three hours over the course of a week and served 30 people.

Rodriguez Remedios said the equipment was installed in late October to keep operations running during blackouts and allow customers to withdraw their money. When he wrote his complaint, however, electricity had been restored while service remained suspended because of problems with the inverter. He questioned how a device intended to solve the interruptions had ended up obstructing the branch's operation.

Rodriguez Remedios also claimed that 25 of the customers served were coleros, the Cuban term for people who hold places in line and later sell them. His complaint went beyond the technical failure: he objected to access to people's money being conditioned by these intermediaries. At the end of his post, he blamed both the line holders and Cuba's political authorities for the difficulties people face in accessing their earnings.

Another person in the comments described incidents at other branches in the capital and reported that cables had been stolen from the solar panels at the office located between 44th and 41st streets. That user added that the connecting wires were also damaged during the theft and questioned how it could have happened while people had been waiting outside since early morning. The same commenter mentioned server-related problems at the branch on 29th Street.

Banking-service problems also surfaced in other incidents in October. On October 31, the Banco Metropolitano branch at Prado and Animas streets served 25 customers over seven hours with a single teller. Earlier, on October 25, another Havana branch had suspended operations citing a server failure. In that case, service resumed minutes after a journalist arrived.

Difficulties withdrawing cash had also been reported in September, when Banco Metropolitano customers described waits of more than eight hours. Those delays have been compounded by empty ATMs and offices affected by power cuts. At other bank branches across the country, retirees have repeatedly been seen sitting on the floor as they wait hours to be served.