By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Cubans from all walks of life are scrambling into survival mode, with prolonged blackouts and rising prices for food, fuel and transportation as the U.S. threatens to squeeze the communist-run nation.
Reuters interviewed more than three dozen residents of towns and neighborhoods around the capital, Havana – the country’s political and economic engine – from street vendors to private sector workers, taxi drivers and state employees.
Together, those discussions paint a picture of people pushed to the limit as goods and services — especially those linked to more limited fuel supplies — become scarcer and more expensive.
For many rural Cubans, this is not entirely new. The island’s weak and outdated electricity generation system has been slowly failing for years and residents are used to spending hours at a time without electricity, internet or working water pumps.
But the seaside capital, where streets are lined with 1950s-era cars and colorful if dilapidated Spanish colonial architecture, has fared well so far.
With first Venezuela and then Mexico cutting off oil shipments to the island, the crisis looks set to swamp it with fuel shortages.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will impose tariffs on imports from countries that supply Cuba with oil, ramping up pressure on Washington’s long-time foe after ousting Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, a key Cuban ally, in early January.
In many other countries, the situation sent people into the streets. So far, in a nation where dissent has long been outlawed, there have been few signs of protest. But it’s unclear how much more Cubans will be willing to tolerate.
The Cuban peso has lost more than 10% of its value against the dollar in three weeks, pushing up grocery prices.
“This has put me in an impossible situation,” said Havana resident and homemaker Yaiti Verdecia. “There’s no salary that can deal with that.”
Daily life is becoming more and more difficult
Asked about the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Cuba soon after Maduro’s capture, Trump said he didn’t think an attack was necessary because “it looks like it’s going down.”
On Friday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared an “international emergency” in response to the US tariff warning, which he said constituted an “unusual and extraordinary threat”.
But the government has said little about how to manage the growing threat of a humanitarian crisis.
Several Cubans told Reuters that daily life – already difficult – had been reduced to basics such as food, fuel for cooking, and water, and had become significantly more difficult in recent days.
Lines for petrol are still being fueled at a handful of service stations in the city this week. And since the U.S. cut off Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba in mid-December, nearly all of the gas has been sold at a premium, in dollars — a currency that few Cubans have access to.
“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 time to fill up their cars. “Not anymore. Sales in national currency have stopped.”
‘You must pay the price or stay at home’
The crisis has affected both public and private transport, putting some buses and private taxis out of business and forcing others to raise their prices.
Delon Perez, 22, who hails private taxis for customers in Old Havana, said fewer buses meant people no longer had the option of paying rising fees for private transportation.
“You have to pay the price or stay home,” he said.
Even transportation by electric vehicles — once considered a panacea in fuel-starved cities — is now affected by blackouts that last eight to 12 hours or more.
Havana taxi driver Alexandre Leyte recently made the switch to an electric three-wheeled taxi, thinking he was outpacing the pack.
“Now, due to the blackout, I can only charge a taxi for four to five hours,” he said.
For decades, the government, rooted in Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban revolution, has survived despite sometimes brutal economic struggles, supporting regular predictions of imminent collapse or coup.
It has long accused US-led efforts to incite rebellion, but the most recent widespread protests were in the pandemic year of 2021, despite a 12% contraction of the economy between 2019 and 2024.
The sharp crackdown on any form of dissent, coupled with the post-pandemic exodus of one to two million people, have all but eliminated organized opposition within the country. Cubans interviewed by Reuters generally declined to answer questions about the possibility of protests.
Power goes out
But none of the interviewees disputed that change was needed.
“I’m praying that God will find a way to get us out of this (mess),” Myrta Trujillo, 71, a street vendor in Guanabacoa, told Reuters that she could no longer buy food. Earlier, she relied on government-provided ration books for basic goods, but this was phased out after the pandemic as tourist income and other sources of hard currency dried up.
“I’m not against my country … but I don’t want to die of hunger,” she said.
On a recent weekday evening, Reuters witnessed an accident at a busy intersection in Havana where stoplights were not working due to a power outage.
“Sometimes when the power goes out, accidents happen because the traffic lights don’t work,” said Raisa Lemu, whose apartment overlooks Marianao Boulevard on the outskirts of Havana.
“It used to be that they would turn off the power two or three times a week, but now it’s every day and sometimes it’s up to 12 hours.”
Julia Anita Cobas, a 69-year-old housewife from Guanabacoa, wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning for the 10-mile (16-kilometer) trek that now takes four hours round trip. With less public transport available, journeys have become longer and more expensive.
“I leave my house before sunrise and I don’t know how I’ll get back,” she said.
But Cobas, who was born just before Castro’s revolution, said she didn’t expect Trump to do better.
“Since I was born (the United States) has been threatening us, and we face hardships every day. But we survived it all,” she said.
Amy Milanes, 32, a resident of Reparto Electro, just outside Havana, said neither the Cuban nor the U.S. government gave her much hope.
“We are drowning. But there is nothing we can do,” Milanes said. “It’s about survival. Nothing else.”
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
