By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Cubans from all walks of life are moving into survival mode, navigating lengthening blackouts and rising prices for food, fuel and transportation as the United States threatens to seize control of the Communist-run nation.
Reuters interviewed over three dozen residents of cities 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 — particularly those tied to increasingly limited fuel supplies — become scarcer and more expensive.
For most of rural Cuba, this is not entirely new. The island’s fragile and antiquated power generation system has been slowly failing for years and residents are used to spending hours at a time without electricity, internet or water pumps functioning.
But the seaside capital, where the streets are lined with 1950s cars and colorful if decrepit Spanish colonial architecture, has fared better until recently.
Now the crisis seems to pass it too, as the lack of fuel is happening, with Venezuela first, then Mexico stopping oil shipments to the island.
US President Donald Trump has said that tariffs will be imposed on imports from countries that supply Cuba with oil, thus increasing the pressure on Washington’s long-time enemy after the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a key Cuban ally, in early January.
In many other countries, the conditions would send people onto the streets. So far, in a nation where dissent has been suppressed, there has been little sign of protest. But it is not clear how much more Cubans will be willing to endure.
The Cuban peso has lost more than 10% of its value against the dollar in three weeks, driving up the price of groceries.
“This put me in an impossible situation,” said Yaite Verdecia, a Havana resident and housewife. “There is no salary that can match this.”
DAILY LIFE BECOME MORE DIFFICULT
Trump, when asked about the prospect of US military intervention in Cuba shortly after the capture of Maduro, said that he did not think there was a need for an attack because “it seems to be 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 it will manage the growing threat of a humanitarian crisis.
Many of the Cubans Reuters spoke to said that daily life – already difficult – had been reduced to basic things such as securing food, fuel for cooking, and water, and that it had become noticeably more difficult in recent days.
Lines for gasoline grew significantly this week at a small number of service centers in the city that are still supplied with fuel. And since the United States blocked Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba in mid-December, virtually all gas has been sold at a premium, in dollars – a currency few Cubans have access to.
“It used to be that you could register and get fuel once a month (in pesos),” said Havana resident Jesus Sosa, referring to an app that lets residents know when it was their turn to fill up their cars. “Not anymore. Sales in the national currency have stopped.”
‘YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE OR STAY HOME’
The crisis hit both public and private transport, putting some private buses and taxis out of business and forcing others to raise their prices.
Daylan Perez, a 22-year-old who hails private taxis for customers in old Havana, said fewer buses mean people now have no choice but to pay rising fees for private transport.
“You have to pay the price or stay home,” he said.
Even transport by electric vehicle – once thought to be a remedy in a city lacking fuel – has been hit by blackouts that now last from eight to 12 hours or more.
Taxi driver Alexander Leyet of Havana recently switched to a three-wheeled electric taxi, thinking he was ahead of the pack.
“Now because of the blackout I can only charge my taxi for four or five hours,” he said.
For decades, the government that has its roots in Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution has survived despite sometimes brutal economic struggles, leaving regular predictions of imminent collapse or uprising.
A US-led effort to foment an uprising has long been alleged, but the most recent widespread protests were in the pandemic year of 2021, despite a 12% contraction of the economy between 2019 and 2024.
Strong repression on any form of dissent, together with the emigration of between one and two million since the pandemic, eliminated the organized opposition in the country. Cubans interviewed by Reuters generally refused to answer questions about the prospect of protests.
THE OTHER POWER
But none of those interviewed disputed that the change was necessary.
“I’m just asking God to find a way to get us out of this (the devastation),” said Mirta Trujillo, a 71-year-old street vendor from Guanabacoa who broke down in tears as she told Reuters she could no longer afford food. Previously, it relied on a government-provided ration book of basic goods, but that was phased out after the pandemic as tourist revenue 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.
Late on weekday evening, Reuters witnessed an incident at a busy intersection in Havana where the stoplights were not working as a result of a power outage.
“Sometimes when the light goes out, accidents happen because the traffic lights don’t work,” said Raysa Lemu, whose apartment overlooks a boulevard in Marianao, on the outskirts of Havana.
“They used to 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 housekeeper from Guanabacoa, gets up every morning at 4 am for a 10-mile (16 km) journey that now takes nearly four hours round trip. With less public transport available, the journey has become longer and more expensive.
“I leave my house before sunrise and I don’t know how I’m going to get back,” she said.
But Cobas, who was born just before Castro’s revolution, said she had no expectation that Trump would improve things.
“Since I was born, (the United States) has been threatening us, and every day we deal with suffering. But we all survived,” she said.
Aimee Milanes, a 32-year-old resident of Reparto Electrico, just outside of Havana, said that neither the Cuban nor the American Government offered her much hope.
“We are drowning. But there is nothing we can do,” said Milanes. “This is about survival. Nothing more.”
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)