HAVANA – The US-imposed oil blockade on Cuba is upending the lives of everyday workers, who are switching jobs and ditching their cars to make do amid rolling blackouts and fuel shortages.
Yixander Diaz jettisoned both his ride and his work when the father of two, a taxi driver, turned to bricklaying.
“Times are tough,” the 27-year-old, who now commutes by bicycle from his Havana suburb to the city centre, told AFP.
Since toppling Venezuela’s leftist leader, Nicolas Maduro, in January, the US has halted Caracas from shipping oil to Cuba and threatened sanctions on others. This has caused a severe energy crisis in a country already facing power cuts and shortages of fuel, medicine, and food.
Vehicle owners can access 20 litres of gasoline via a mobile app that organises distribution, but the process can take months. Due to fuel shortages, Diaz had to “park the motorcycle, park the car” and return to his former profession “to survive.” Cuba, under a US trade embargo since 1962, will keep public sector salaries but has introduced a four-day workweek amid transportation issues.
Diesel sales are banned, and gasoline sales are restricted under emergency measures to address the crisis. Many self-employed, private sector and informal workers are barely hanging on.
“I could lose my job at any moment, and I don’t know how I’m going to feed my family,” Alexander Callejas, a parking attendant at a restaurant, told AFP. At the Havana eatery where he works, the number of customers arriving by car has dramatically decreased, he said.
According to research by the private consulting firm Auge, 96.4% of the country’s small and medium-sized private businesses are feeling “severe” or “catastrophic” impacts from the fuel shortage. Local crude production of about 40 000 barrels daily barely supports the country’s power plants. Diesel shortages have impaired electric generators that previously supplemented production.
Since early 2026, solar power has risen among the wealthy, while others rely on charcoal or open fires.
An AFP analysis of official data shows the island produced only half the electricity needed last year, even before the US blockade.
“They cut off the power here every day,” said Havana resident Eduardo, who told AFP that whether the lights are on or not affects when he can cook his meals that day.The crisis has trickled down to fruit and vegetable vendors in a country that imports 80% of its food.
“We start work at nine in the morning, and by noon we have to close,” said Yordan Gonzalez (20), who works in a small shop in central Havana. By the afternoon, “there’s no merchandise,” she said, and “no diesel” to bring in more.
Meanwhile, at the Mariel commercial port, outside the capital, containers are piling up.
There’s not enough diesel to distribute the goods inside.
-Nampa/AFP