"We don't have gas, we don't have electricity, we can't use our electrical appliances," says 40-year-old Betsabe Valdes, illuminated by a phone flashlight in the dark streets of Havana as Cuba suffers a nationwide blackout. "There is no electricity, and that makes life difficult for us," she adds. The island's largest power plant failed earlier in the day, the energy ministry said, and followed weeks of blackouts that lasted up to 20 hours a day in some provinces. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES