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Some Cubans say daily life on the Caribbean island has reached a breaking point amid fuel shortages caused by the U.S. cut to the country’s oil supply. Meanwhile, Canadian airlines have suspended flights to the island and are ferrying tourists home.
“For me, any change will be better for us than what we are going through, because what we are going through is not humane,” Isben Peralta told CBC News in a phone interview during the power outage.
“Some of us who have little to do have something to eat, but many, many, many people don’t. It’s very, very bad.”
Peralta lives in Ciego De Avila, in central Cuba, where he runs a small pizzeria from his home. He says he’s lucky — he still gets electricity for a few hours a day, but says that’s only because he lives close to where the fuel is delivered.
Sometimes, it can even get a three hour stretch where there is electricity. In other areas in his province, Peralta says people will be without power for 10 or 11 hours, followed by a maximum of 30 minutes with power back on.
“WI have a little more strength… and then they take it off for five hours straight before putting it back on for a while longer.”
On Sunday, in official notice called NOTAM published on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website. Sunday, José Martí International Airport in Havana warned that he was almost out of jet fuel. By Monday, major Canadian airlines canceled flights.
A country in crisis
Cuba has historically relied on Venezuela to supply it with most of its oil, but has not received it raw or refined products from its greatest ally since mid-December, when the US captured its president Nicolás Maduro, attacked the capital last month and blocked the South American country’s exports.
US President Donald Trump has since promised that Cuba will no longer receive oil from Venezuela and has signed it executive order On January 29, imposing sanctions on countries that sell fuel to it. This effectively cut off Cuba’s supply of jet gas and fuel for its power grid, which is in such disrepair that blackouts were the norm for many Cubans even before the oil embargo.
Mark Entwistle, former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, says The Trump administration is trying to inflict pain and stifle the country’s economy to the point that the regime falls.
Cuba has been facing food and medicine shortages for some time, Entwistle says, and has long experienced a “challenging” energy situation.
After US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on countries that sell oil to Cuba, Mark Entwistle, Canada’s former ambassador to Cuba, says the Trump administration is trying to inflict pain and stifle the country’s economy.
While some of these problems have their roots in the COVID-19 pandemic when Cuba shut down its tourism sector, he told CBC News Network that the humanitarian situation is real and “going to get worse” as it is exacerbated by U.S. actions.
Entwistle says there may soon come a time when Canada will have to step in and send significant humanitarian aid despite threats of tariffs, and hopefully the US won’t be too “brutal” about it.
“I don’t believe even the Trump administration could try to block humanitarian aid to starving children.”
‘it’s very bad’
They are with the flightsspent, Luis Escalona was effectively cut off from his family in Holguin, a city in the southeast of the island. He lived in Winnipeg with his wife and son since 2015, but usually returns to Cuba several times each year.
Escalona is the only person in his family living in Canada, and he says they rely on him. Now he will not be able to take his mother to the hospital during his visit next month, which he has been forced to postpone.
“I arranged to rent a car and go with her when I was there in March. Now she will have to wait because there is no electricity, no supplies, no gas and they canceled our flights,” he said. he said.
“I’m very disappointed… I bought a lot of things that my family needs to survive, which are impossible to get in Cuba or I can’t afford to buy.”
He planned to bring a case full of Tylenol, vitamins, toiletries, soap, shampoo and mosquito spray.
His family’s life is hard right now, Said staircase.
Access to water is limited, and without electricity they cannot cook, he said. But without transportation, they can’t come to work to earn food anyway, and when there’s no electricity, there’s no phone either.
“These are very difficult days waiting for news from all my loved ones back home,” he said.
Many businesses remain open
Despite fuel shortages, a Canadian living in Havana says people in Cuba are finding ways to survive.
“There’s no palpable panic on the streets,” said Sean Lulker, who owns a parts supply company based in Toronto and splits his time between his home in Ajax, Ont., and Cuba.
He says many businesses remain open, even while people are working with them frequent power outages and shortages of key supplies.
Although the Cubans have shown resilience, Lulker says things are not easy.
“It’s sad, it’s hard,” he told CBC News during a phone call from Havana on Monday when his connection was interrupted by a power outage that lasted for hours. Lulker says his business has turned to solar power and batteries to deal with outages. It also has enough fuel to last until March.
Meanwhile, in Ciego De Avila, Peralta says the situation there is dire, with wages that don’t give people enough money to buy food.
“Everything is dilapidated and in very bad conditions,” he said in Spanish.
