HAVANA (Reuters) – Cubans still reeling from months of hours-long power outages now face a new problem: fuel shortages.
Many gas stations on the island have been closed for days as an unusually severe shortage has left the country virtually without gasoline and diesel fuel, leaving motorists stranded and creating seemingly endless lines at the pump in Havana.
“We have been waiting for the arrival of a tanker truck for three days,” Armando Corrales said from the driver’s seat of his gray Kia SUV at a gas station in the capital. “People have been sleeping in line here so they don’t lose their place.”
The latest crisis follows three nationwide power outages in two months that left millions of people in the dark for days, prompting the communist-led government to temporarily close schools and non-essential industry.
Cuba has not yet provided an explanation for the latest shortage.
Only a relatively trickle of fuel has been served in Havana since Wednesday, according to a government application that tracks deliveries to individual gas stations.
Officials have previously blamed the fuel shortages on the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, which complicates Cuba’s financial transactions, making it harder for the government to buy fuel on the spot market.
Cuba’s longtime allies have reduced fuel shipments this year. Venezuela sent 44% less crude oil and fuel to the Caribbean island from January to November, according to tanker monitoring data and documents from Venezuelan state-owned company PDVSA.
Mexico, which has become a regular supplier to the island, has made up some of the difference. But both Venezuela and Mexico send mostly crude oil to Cuba, where aging refineries must use it to make gasoline and diesel for cars, trucks and generators.
Cuba this year started selling fuel in dollars at unsubsidized prices, similar to those in neighboring countries. The government said this was partly necessary to raise enough foreign currency to ensure a steady supply at the pump.
Even the much more expensive “dollar gas stations” faltered this week, said Jorge Figueredo as he waited to pump fuel in the Havana suburb of Miramar.
“The lines are now miles long, even if you go and buy fuel in dollars,” Figueredo said.
