Theft of dielectric oil in Cuba can carry death penalty, warns Supreme Court
Cuba's Supreme Court fixed sentences of 7 to 30 years—or death—for stealing oil from electrical transformers. More than 300 reports registered since 2025.
Cuban Supreme Court: stealing dielectric oil can cost your life
The president of the Chamber of Crimes Against State Security of the Supreme Court of the People, Iliana Gómez Guerra, presented before Cuban Television cameras the complete scale of penalties applicable to those who steal dielectric oil from electrical transformers: seven to 15 years of deprivation of liberty in the basic form of the crime of sabotage, and 10 to 30 years, perpetual deprivation or death sentence when any aggravating circumstance applies. According to cubanet.org, this is how it was reported.
Gómez Guerra intervened on Thursday, 3 September in the programme Hacemos Cuba, dedicated entirely to crimes against the National Electrical System (SEN).
Legal framework: the Penal Code and Opinion 475
Article 125 of the Cuban Penal Code penalises with seven to 15 years anyone who destroys, alters, damages or prejudices energy sources or energy transmission routes with the purpose of obstructing their operation. Article 126 raises the penalty to between 10 and 30 years, perpetual deprivation or death in five scenarios: if serious injuries or the death of any person are caused, if fire, explosives or chemical or biological agents are used, if serious consequences are produced regardless of the means used, if collective security is endangered, or if the affected assets belong to material reserves. The last three scenarios do not require violence or victims.
Opinion 475 of the Governing Board of the Supreme Court of the People, dated 23 May 2025, establishes criteria of mandatory compliance for lower courts on the legal classification of vandalistic acts against public transport, railway lines, generator sets, photovoltaic parks and telecommunications. On 31 August, the Supreme Court of the People and the General Prosecutor's Office clarified in a joint statement that since May 2025 any act in which components of the electrical system are stolen, damaged or altered constitutes sabotage.
Sentences imposed and road controls
The sentences handed down through August for the theft of dielectric oil have ranged between nine and 20 years of deprivation of liberty, according to Gómez Guerra. The joint statement of 31 August confirms that all persons tried in 2026 for crimes linked to the SEN have been convicted of sabotage. The General Prosecutor's Office further reported that 87 per cent of the accused in these proceedings are held in provisional prison.
Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Martínez González, deputy head of the Investigation Department of State Security of the Ministry of the Interior, detailed that technical and scientific expert examinations at road control points—aimed at detecting dielectric oil mixed with a vehicle's fuel tank—constitute the most recent measure against the final destination of the stolen product. In a single province, not identified due to ongoing proceedings, 105 vehicles were checked: 21 tested positive and 18 were seized. Martínez González identified private sector transporters as the main receivers of the stolen oil, without generalising to the entire profession.
Prosecutor Moraima Velázquez Romero, head of department in the Criminal Proceedings Directorate of the General Prosecutor's Office, argued that vehicle forfeiture proceeds as an accessory sanction when the owner's participation or knowledge is established.
Matanzas accounts for 60 per cent of thefts
Matanzas was the first province to announce road controls. The provincial radio station Radio 26 reported on 28 August that the territory accounts for 60 per cent of the country's dielectric oil thefts, with more than 90 damaged transformers and losses exceeding half a million dollars in lubricant replacement alone. The laboratories of the Fuel Trading Company of Matanzas would analyse diesel samples through viscosity and flash point tests.
In the Marcos popular council, in Matanzas, the theft of approximately 1,000 litres left the community without electricity for more than 30 days. In Calimete, also in Matanzas, 12 people damaged 23 transformers between March and May.
460 criminal investigations and two electrocuted deaths
The phenomenon reaches 97 municipalities and all provinces, according to Martínez González. Between 2025 and the first half of 2026, more than 460 criminal investigations were initiated for sabotage, damage, burglary, theft and receiving linked to the SEN. Oil extraction alone accumulated more than 300 reports, with higher incidence in Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila, Mayabeque, Santiago de Cuba and Artemisa.
In the hours before the programme aired, nine transformers had been affected in Havana, among them those serving the water supply from the Paso Seco source, in Arroyo Naranjo. Two men, aged 40 and 31, were electrocuted in Santiago de Cuba whilst handling transformers.
Oil scarce and expensive on the informal market
Radio 26 put the price of dielectric oil on the informal market at between 500 and 2,500 Cuban pesos per litre, in a context of widespread fuel and lubricant shortages. On the world market, that same litre averages between 2.80 and 3.50 dollars. Cuba only produces dielectric oil at the Sergio Soto refinery, in Cabaiguán, and only for transformers up to 33 kilovolts; the rest is imported.
Martínez González listed the criminal incidence against the electrical system in three tiers: first the extraction of oil from transformers, then solar panels and, third, the extraction of angles from high-voltage towers.
Power cuts remain above 20 hours daily in much of the country. The National Electricity Union forecasted for the peak demand hours of Friday, 4 September insufficient generation availability to cover national demand.
Source: Google News CU — Crime