By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Cubans of all walks of life are going into survival mode, navigating blackouts and soaring food, fuel and transportation prices as the U.S. threatens a takeover of the communist-run nation.
Reuters interviewed more than three dozen residents of the towns and neighborhoods around the capital Havana – the country’s political and economic engine – from street vendors to private sector workers, taxi drivers and government employees.
Together, those discussions paint a picture of a people pushed to the limit as goods and services — especially those related 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 have grown accustomed to spending hours without electricity, internet or working water pumps.
But the seaside capital, where the streets are lined with 1950s-era cars and colorful if decrepit Spanish colonial architecture, has fared better until recently.
Now the crisis looks set to sink it, too, as fuel shortages set in, first Venezuela, then Mexico halting oil shipments to the island.
US President Donald Trump said tariffs would be imposed on imports from countries that supply Cuba with oil, increasing pressure on Washington’s long-time foe following the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a key Cuban ally, in early January.
In many other countries, the conditions would have sent people into the streets. So far, in a nation where dissent has long been stifled, there have been few signs of protest. But it is not clear how much more Cubans will be willing to endure.
Cuba’s peso has lost more than 10 percent of its value against the dollar in three weeks, pushing up food prices.
“This put me in an impossible situation,” said Yaite Verdecia, a Havana resident and homemaker. “There’s no salary that can handle that.”
Everyday life that becomes more difficult
Asked about the prospect of US military intervention in Cuba shortly after Maduro’s capture, Trump said he didn’t think an attack was necessary because “it looks like it’s going to be 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 Cubans told Reuters that daily life – already difficult – had been reduced to basics, such as securing food, cooking fuel and water, and had become considerably more difficult in recent days.
Gasoline lines have grown significantly this week at several service centers in the city still stocked with fuel. And since the U.S. blocked Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba in mid-December, virtually all gas has been sold for a lump sum, in dollars — a currency few Cubans have access to.
“You used to be able to sign up and get fuel once a month (in pesos),” said Havana resident Jesus Sosa, referring to an app that would notify residents when it was their turn to fill up their cars. “Not anymore. Sales in national currency have stopped.”
“YOU MUST PAY THE PRICE OR STAY HOME”
The crisis has affected both public and private transport, putting some private buses and taxis out of service and forcing others to raise their prices.
Daylan Perez, a 22-year-old who hails private taxis for clients in Old Havana, said fewer buses meant people had no choice but to pay rising fees for private transport.
“You have to pay the price or stay home,” he said.
Even electric vehicle transportation — once thought to be a panacea in a fuel-starved city — has been plagued by blackouts that now last eight to 12 hours or more.
Havana taxi driver Alexander Leyet recently switched to an electric three-wheeled taxi, believing he had outgrown the pack.
“Now, because of the blackouts, I can only charge my taxi for four or five hours,” he said.
For decades, the government that traces its roots to Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution has survived despite sometimes brutal economic struggles, defying regular predictions of imminent collapse or an uprising.
It has long claimed a US-led effort to fuel the uprising, but the most recent widespread protests came in the pandemic year 2021, despite a 12% contraction in the economy between 2019 and 2024.
Heavy crackdowns on any form of dissent, combined with the emigration of between one and two million people since the pandemic, have all but eliminated organized opposition from the country. Cubans interviewed by Reuters generally declined to answer questions about the prospect of protests.
THE POWER GOES OUT
But none of those interviewed disputed that change was necessary.
“I just pray that God will find a way to get us out of this (misery),” 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. It previously depended on a government-provided basic goods ration card, but that was phased out after the pandemic as income from tourists and other sources of foreign currency dried up.
“I’m not against my country … but I don’t want to starve,” she said.
On a recent evening, Reuters witnessed an accident at a busy intersection in Havana, where the traffic lights were not working due to a power outage.
“Sometimes when the power 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.
“I used to cut 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 domestic worker from Guanabacoa, wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning for the 10-mile (16 km) commute, which now approaches four hours round trip. With less public transport available, travel has become longer and more expensive.
“I leave my house before sunrise and I don’t know how I will get back,” she said.
But Cobas, who was born just before Castro’s revolution, said he didn’t expect Trump to make things better.
“Since I was born (the United States) has threatened us and every day we face hardships. But we survived it all,” she said.
Aimee Milanes, a 32-year-old resident of Reparto Electrico, just outside Havana, said that neither the Cuban nor the American government had given 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)