Dave Sherwood
HAVANA (Reuters) – As the United States threatens to strangle the communist country, Cubans from all walks of life are stuck in survival mode, facing extended power outages and soaring prices for food, fuel and transportation.
Reuters spoke to more than three dozen residents in towns and communities surrounding the capital Havana, the country’s political and economic engine, ranging from street vendors to private sector workers, taxi drivers and state employees.
Together, these discussions paint a picture of people being pushed to their limits as goods and services—especially those tied to increasingly limited fuel supplies—become increasingly scarce and expensive.
For much of rural Cuba, this is nothing new. The island’s fragile and antiquated power generation system has been slowly failing over the years, and residents have become accustomed to spending hours at a time without power, internet or water pumps.
But the seaside capital, with its streets lined with cars from the 1950s and colorful but shabby Spanish colonial buildings, was looking better until recently.
Now, as fuel shortages emerge, the crisis looks set to sweep over the island as well, with first Venezuela and then Mexico halting oil shipments to the island.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on imports from Cuba’s oil suppliers, adding to pressure on America’s long-time foe after the expulsion of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a key ally of Cuba, in early January.
In many other countries, this situation would send people into the streets. So far, there has been little sign of protest in a country where dissent has long been suppressed. But it’s unclear how much more Cubans are willing to endure.
The Cuban peso has lost more than 10% of its value against the U.S. dollar in three weeks, pushing up the price of groceries.
“This puts me in a difficult situation,” said Yaite Verdecia, a Havana resident and homemaker. “There’s no paycheck to deal with this.”
Daily life becomes more difficult
Asked about the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Cuba shortly after the capture of Maduro, Trump said he did not believe an attack was necessary because “things look like they are going down.”
On Friday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared an “international state of emergency” in response to the U.S. tariff warning, which he said posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
But the government has revealed little about how it will respond to the growing threat of a humanitarian crisis.
Many Cubans interviewed by Reuters said daily life, already difficult and reduced to basic food, fuel for cooking and water, had become significantly more difficult in recent days.
Fuel is still available at some service centers in the city this week and queues for petrol have increased significantly. Since the United States blocked Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba in mid-December, nearly all natural gas has been sold at a premium in U.S. dollars — a currency that few Cubans have access to.
“In the past, you could sign up once a month and get fuel (in pesos),” said Havana resident Jesus Sosa, referring to an app that lets residents know when it’s their turn to fill up their cars. “Not anymore. Sales in local currencies have stopped.”
“You have to pay the price or stay home”
The crisis has hit both public and private transport, causing some buses and private taxis to go out of business and forcing others to raise prices.
Daylan Perez, 22, who hails private taxis for customers in Old Havana, said fewer buses mean people now have no choice but to pay rising private transport costs.
“You have to pay the price or stay home,” he said.
Even electric vehicle transportation, once considered a panacea for fuel-starved cities, has been hit by blackouts that now last eight to 12 hours or more.
Havana taxi driver Alexander Leyet recently switched to an electric three-wheel taxi, thinking he was smarter than everyone else.
“Now, because of the power outage, my taxi can only charge for four or five hours,” he said.
For decades, the government that grew out of Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban revolution has survived despite sometimes brutal economic struggles that upended conventional predictions of imminent collapse or uprising.
It has long claimed an act of US-led sedition, but the latest widespread protests came in the pandemic year of 2021, despite a 12% economic contraction between 2019 and 2024.
A harsh crackdown on any form of dissent, coupled with the emigration of one to two million people since the pandemic, has all but eliminated domestic organized opposition. Cubans interviewed by Reuters generally declined to answer questions about the prospect of protests.
power failure
But no one interviewed denied the need for change.
“I just pray that God will find a way to get us out of this mess,” said Mirta Trujillo, a 71-year-old street vendor from Guanabacoa, who burst into tears as she told Reuters she could no longer afford food. Previously, she relied on a government ration book for basic supplies, but that was phased out in the wake of the pandemic as tourist revenue and other sources of hard currency dried up.
“I have nothing against my country… but I don’t want to die of hunger,” she said.
On a recent weekday evening, Reuters witnessed an incident at a busy intersection in Havana where traffic lights were not working due to a power outage.
“Sometimes when there’s a power outage and the traffic lights are broken, accidents happen,” said Raysa Lemu, whose apartment overlooks a boulevard in Mariano, a suburb of Havana.
“They used to have power outages two or three times a week, but now they have power outages every day, sometimes for up to 12 hours.”
Julia Anita Cobas, a 69-year-old housekeeper from Guanabacoa, wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning for a 10-mile (16-kilometer) commute that now takes nearly four hours. With less public transport available, journeys are becoming longer and more expensive.
“I left home before sunrise and I didn’t know how to get back,” she said.
But Cobas, who was born before Castro’s revolution, said she doesn’t expect Trump to make things better.
“(The United States) has been threatening us since I was born, and we face difficulties every day. But we get through it,” she said.
Aimee Milanes, a 32-year-old resident of Reparto Electrico outside Havana, said neither the Cuban nor the U.S. government gave her much hope.
“We were drowning. But there was nothing we could do,” Milanes said. “This is about survival. Nothing else.”
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)