CANCÚN: Electricity has been fully restored across large parts of southeastern Mexico following a major interconnection line failure.
The blackout began around 2:00 pm local time and lasted approximately six hours before power returned to affected areas in Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated late on Friday that nearly half the population in the coastal city of Cancún remained without electricity even after restoration efforts.
Federal Electricity Commission operations director Hector Lopez confirmed that 2.3 million people were impacted by the outage.
The failure forced 16 generators offline, causing significant disruptions to traffic and communications systems.
“Traffic lights stopped working and there was chaos,“ said an AFP reporter on the ground in Cancún.
The reporter noted that gas stations and businesses with generators remained open while others had to close due to an inability to process electronic payments.
Some neighbourhoods experienced telephone service interruptions lasting more than two hours.
Lopez confirmed there were no reports of disruptions to hospital services or drinking water supplies during the incident.
This event echoes a June 2022 accident during maintenance that left 1.3 million people without electricity for nearly two hours in the Yucatan Peninsula. – AFP
