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With queues and blackouts, Cubans suffer fuel crisis
HAVANA, Sept 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ernesto Mirabal gave up a night’s sleep
for a few gallons of gas at a Havana service station, where lining up for
five hours has become the norm during a severe fuel shortage on the
Communist-run island.
Since President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s shock announcement on September 11
that the country was facing the fuel shortfall, widespread uncertainty and a
degree of panic have gripped the nation.
Mirabal, a taxi driver, had no choice but to while away his sleeping hours
queuing for gas.
“I got here a little after 11 o’clock and was able to put gas in the car
at four in the morning,” said Mirabal, 48. “I had to do it because I had a
customer to pick up at 7 o’clock.”
“I’ve got enough fuel for today and tomorrow now. But the day after
tomorrow I have to start all over again.”
– Drastic measures –
Images of long lines of people waiting endless hours outside service
stations have flooded Cubans’ Twitter and Facebook timelines over the past
week.
WhatsApp groups have sprung up around the burning question of the day:
“Where can I get fuel?”
In public companies and offices, schedules have been cut back, air
conditioners have hummed to a halt and electricity blackouts imposed for a
few hours a day. Some companies have sent their workers home.
Garbage accumulates in the streets as collections are cut back, a blow to
the health ministry’s battle against resurgent dengue fever, a deadly strain
of which is worrying authorities.
The drastic measures in place for the past week remind many of the Special
Period, the dark days of extreme shortages in the 1990s which followed the
collapse of Cuba’s main sponsor, the Soviet Union.
Some measures indeed mirror those of 25 years ago as the nation tries to
cope.
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With public transport reduced to bare minimum service, traffic police flag
down drivers of state-owned vehicles to demand they take on passengers.
But the starkest example of Cuba’s fuel crisis can be seen in the sugar
cane plantations, where oxen are being brought in to replace the machines
that power the country’s biggest export.
– Panic –
“People think the fuel will run out and so everyone is trying to
accumulate as much as possible,” said Omar Everleny, an economist.
“They believe things will get even more complicated, despite what the
authorities say.”
Diaz-Canel promised a return to “relative normality” by October.
Despite an official prohibition, many motorists fill up jerrycans at
service stations, in addition to their cars.
The government is keeping up a barrage of reassuring messages, with the
president calling on citizens to “think like a country” and stand together at
this time of need.
Diaz-Canel has blamed the shortages on increasingly aggressive US
sanctions against Cuba and its oil-source ally Venezuela.
“Imperialism is not going to ruin our lives or take our sleep away,” the
president tweeted on Thursday as the crisis entered its second week.
“We are facing up to this situation, we are implementing systematic
economy measures, we are growing and we will win.”
Like many others, however, Everleny, the economist, doesn’t buy the
government line.
“If the country is paralyzed, where will the growth come from?” He asked,
citing a decline in tourist arrivals from Europe. Cruise ships that brought
thousands of American visitors every week have been banned since June, as
part of the US sanctions.
The fuel shortage is indicative of the country’s currency crisis.
Cuba has no alternative to oil from Venezuela which is paid for in part by
sending Cuban doctors to Caracas to shore up a collapsing medical system.
And as for the return to normal promised by Diaz-Canel, Everleny warns:
“Normal would mean a return to a period of weak growth and uncertainty.”
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