New gasoline supply crisis semi-paralyzes transportation in Cuba

First modification: 04/11/2023 – 17:05

“The queues are incredible. You can’t work because you don’t have any, and you have to wait in line for up to seven days before the fuel arrives,” laments Carmen, a taxi driver in Havana, at the RFI microphone.

“It’s chaotic, it’s disappointing”

And it is that a new fuel supply crisis has paralyzed public and private transportation in Cuba. As a consequence, kilometric queues formed around the gas stations, and hundreds of people end up spending several nights in their cars waiting for an eventual tanker truck.

“Conclusion: you have to comply with the government. He doesn’t comply with you. You have to work to be able to pay everything they charge you, but above all to buy oil. If you buy it from abroad on the black market, it is of no use to you because you can work and you can get money, but you necessarily have to spend seven days in line to be able to take what the government requires of you. It’s chaotic, it’s disappointing. It’s catastrophic, isn’t it?”, denounces Carmen.

These queues are called “phantom queues”, which people do without any assurance that the miracle of refilling the tank will finally occur.

A problem for taxi drivers

“I don’t know how to explain to you exactly how difficult the fuel issue is being. There are reservations, for example, that we taxi drivers from a month ago have made and we cannot fulfill them. If you do not meet them, the client and your company falls. You lose credibility as a taxi driver, but also, everything that this entails”, continues the woman.

According to her, “for taxi drivers it is more difficult than for individuals. Because? Because you have to pay some taxes to the government and you have to, compulsorily, once a month, empty the fuel card for which it obliges you. When you go to the stations there is no fuel. Therefore, you cannot legally use it. It can only be obtained at an excessively expensive price abroad”.

“We are losing clients, we are losing everything. Credibility. For example, I am a taxi driver and since I cannot spend seven days in a queue because I have two girls and other things, I am a woman, normally when someone manages to queue, they don’t even want to dial, because the more we find, the more difficult it is to get oil and reach you. Outside of Havana, it is much more catastrophic as in Cienfuegos, Holguín, Guantánamo or Santiago. Those are without anything, they have hardly any supply”, concludes Carmen, with a tone of despair.

Meanwhile, the Cuban parliament convened a session on April 19 to designate the president of the Republic; a process in which the first president Miguel Díaz-Canel, 62, could be re-elected for another five years, the newspaper reported on Monday Granma.