The odyssey of getting fuel in Cuba

For more than ten days, fuel has become the biggest headache for many Cubans. It is not the first time that the crisis affects the mobility of people, but this time kilometers of rows and deserted streets remember the worst moments of the special era of the 90s.

In order to buy a few liters of fuel, many are forced to wait whole days and nights, and they do not always succeed. “I was inside from very early until after ten at night column longer than two kilometers, which barely progressed. In the end I had to leave with an empty tank, because then it was over,” he says. Roberto Rodriguezautonomous or just busy, as defined in Cuba. “Without gas, I can’t find the products I need to keep the cafeteria open, so my hands are tied,” he says.

Others are forced to be even more persistent. That is the case yaquelin gomezA 49-year-old editor who had to he sleeps four nights in a row in his car waiting by an empty gas station. “I have sick people and small children at home, I didn’t even have emergency fuel. Since there were hundreds of cars everywhere I went, I decided to focus on one where about twenty were waiting. In the end there were 4 days and nights where I only managed to go home very quickly a few times. In line, I met people of all professions, doctors, engineers… And they are all here, unable to work,” he says.

Neither tourists nor diplomats are spared risotto, who, although they have their own places, can fill up with fuel only after waiting for several hours.

The most vulnerable are those who do not even have fuel and depend on public transport, which is currently reduced to almost zero. “I had to walk more than 8 kilometers to workno bus passed,” he complains ArelisBank clerk.

lack of explanation

Complaints about the lack of information have become as numerous as the lack of fuel. Only eleven days later the president was outMiguel Diaz-Canelto face According to the president, the country consumes between 500 and 600 tons of gasoline per day, but “at the moment we are covering less than 400 tons of gasoline per day for all activities”.

The reason is external, he assures. “Countries that have certain obligations towards us to supply us with gasoline were also ua complex energy situation“, he justified himself, without specifying which nations he was referring to. Díaz-Canel insisted that “this has nothing to do with the inefficiency of the country, nor with the problems of our energy institutions.” It remains to be seen whether the Cubans will believe him.