Juan Diego Rodríguez – Translating Cuba

Norbert Galland’s Last Set of Clothes Is for Sale

Inflation and the rising cost of living are forcing more and more elderly Cubans to work or part with their belongings.

He’s not updating his wardrobe or making room in the shop window; he’s selling what little he has just to be able to eat. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, October 23, 2026 / Norbert Galland doesn’t have a shop, a counter, or even a rack to display his merchandise. The corner of Vía Blanca and Diez de Octubre in Havana is all he needs to try and earn a few pesos. His small business can be counted in two hands: a white shirt, a dark one, and a few other items he takes from his own wardrobe. He’s not renovating his wardrobe or making room in the whop window; he’s selling what little he has to be able to eat.

Wearing a worn cap, his face gouged with wrinkles, and a thinness that seems to have diminished even his shadow, Galland stands by the sidewalk and holds up the shirts for passersby to examine. In his hands he holds a white garment, neatly buttoned and still on its hanger; also two shirts, one dark and one light, as if offering an assortment capable of satisfying any customer’s taste.

Motorcycles, tricycles, and trucks pass by. The traffic in this Havana neighborhood continues its course, indifferent to the elderly man who has turned the sidewalk into an improvised commercial establishment. A few meters away, potholes, puddles, and trash complete a scene that perfectly encapsulates the Cuba in which this impromptu vendor lives. continue reading

His small business could fit in two hands: a white shirt, a dark one, and a few other items he takes from his own wardrobe. / 14ymedio

Galland receives neither a pension nor state assistance, as he told 14ymedio. His situation is especially hard in a country that for decades boasted of having guaranteed social protection to all its citizens, from cradle to grave. Now, for many elderly people, that promise seems to have fallen short, precisely when they most need someone to uphold the other part of the bargain.

The streets of the island have become increasingly crowded in recent years with elderly people selling anything they can to supplement their income. Some offer candy, nylon bags, or single cigarettes; others collect cans, scavenge for food in the trash, or try to earn a few bills using skills learned decades ago. Old age, which should bring some rest, has become for many a workday with no set hours and no vacation time.

Their situation is especially difficult in a country that for decades boasted of having guaranteed social protection to all its citizens, from cradle to grave.

Inflation has eroded the purchasing power of pensions, while the dollar continues its climb on the black market, driving up food prices. Family support isn’t always an option either: children and grandchildren have emigrated, and not all of them can send remittances. Relatives who remain on the island are often just as financially strapped as their parents and grandparents.

In this geography of survival, Galland parts with his belongings to solve the problem of daily food.

The white shirt looks clean, intact, almost elegant. It could be worn for a celebration, an important visit, or a special occasion. But in the old man’s hands, it’s just a small financial reserve that dwindles with each passing hour, and no one buys it.

In Cuba, even the last Sunday best can end up as Monday’s lunch.

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A Enormous Sinkhole Becomes a Waterfall and a Trap for Pedestrians in Havana’s Cerro District

Water rushes into a deep cavity at Amenidad and Cruz del Padre, carrying with it the garbage accumulated in the street.

A woman lifts her shopping cart to cross the flooded area, while other pedestrians look for places to put their feet. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, October 24, 2026 / A massive sinkhole at the intersection of Amenidad and Cruz del Padre, in Havana’s Cerro municipality, has become a dangerous trap for pedestrians and vehicles. The pavement has a large opening through which rainwater pours down like a waterfall. Around the hole, sewer grates are displaced, the asphalt is broken up, and trash accumulates among the debris.

Barely meters away, several pedestrians try to cross the street, which has become a series of puddles and potholes. A woman lifts her shopping cart to cross the flooded area, while other passersby look for somewhere to put their feet without ending up in the water.

The danger is not hypothetical. In February 2025, Jonathan Oliva, a 12-year-old boy, died after being pulled into a sewer during floods that affected Havana. The boy was returning from school when he was swept away by the water in the Villanueva and Vía Blanca area of Luyanó, near the Miguel Enríquez Hospital. His body was found the next day.

Jonathan Oliva was 12 years old and was returning from school when he was sucked into a sewer. / Facebook

The tragedy shocked the capital and once again highlighted the deteriorating state of the sewage system. During a tour of the flooded areas, this newspaper observed numerous accumulations of garbage clogging the drains, while the water reached over a meter in some places.

Just a few steps away, everyday life tries to go on. / 14ymedio

Another fatal incident occurred in September 2022, when a girl was swept away by the current while trying to cross a flooded street with her cousin in the municipality of Cotorro. A man managed to rescue one of the girls, but was unable to save the other. Some witnesses claimed at the time that both had been swept into a storm drain. continue reading

Vehicles have also become trapped in Havana’s enormous potholes. In June 2024, a motorcycle and a car fell into a deep, water-filled crater at the intersection of Infanta and Ayestarán streets, also in the Cerro neighborhood. Neighbors helped recover the motorcycle, and no injuries were reported.

In April of that same year, another enormous pothole in the same municipality had become an impromptu swimming pool where several children were bathing. According to residents, it had been open for about five years without the authorities addressing the problem. The hole was so large that it prevented larger vehicles from passing.

The problem resurfaced with particular severity in July of this year, when rains and clogged drains created a river of sewage in Cuatro Caminos, in Central Havana. A neighbor expressed her fear at the time that another child would be swept away by the current, as had happened to Jonathan Oliva.

In Amenidad and Cruz del Padre, meanwhile, water drips into the sinkhole, amidst debris, displaced grates, and broken pavement edges. Just a few steps away, daily life tries to go on, as if resigned to the fact that this and other disasters are an unavoidable part of normality.

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In Luyanó, Cuba, the Sky Provides Better Supplies Than the Aqueduct

After more than ten days without running water, the residents of this Havana neighborhood are taking advantage of the rains to fill their tanks.

Residents of Luyanó, in Havana, collecting rainwater this Monday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, October 19, 2026 / Monday’s rain was received in some streets of Luyanó with more enthusiasm than any announcement of water infrastructure investments. After more than ten days without running water, the residents of this Havana neighborhood have found in the sky a supplier far more reliable than the state. While it’s not potable, it also doesn’t require contracts, send inspectors, or promise that service will be restored within hours. It simply turns on the tap whenever it feels like it.

On a street lined with peeling facades, weathered balconies, and doorways that have seen too many crises, the rain has got the residents moving. A man loads an enormous blue tank onto a small wheelbarrow. Beside him, a plastic container fills, little by little, with the stream cascading from a rooftop. The scene has something of a communal water distribution day, only this time the supplier is several kilometers above their heads.

For decades, Cubans have developed a domestic engineering of buckets, basins, hoses, and recycled containers to store as much water as possible.

For decades, Cubans have developed a domestic engineering of buckets, basins, hoses, and recycled containers to store as much water as possible. These emergency solutions have become a regular part of urban life. If the sky clouds over, the first thing they do is not to rush to grab an umbrella, but rather some container to collect every drop they can wrest from nature.

This Monday, from early morning, the rain soaked the street, trickled from the eaves, and poured from the roofs. What in other circumstances would be a annoyance for passersby became a not to be missed opportunity. Every liter collected could be used to flush a toilet, clean the floor, or wash clothes. The residents of Luyanó had to look upwards to solve the problem of what should be coming down from below.

In this case, the weather report has proven more useful than the promises of those responsible for the aqueduct.

Watch video here

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Havana, Hand-Corrected on G Street

A purple marker transforms an optimistic slogan into the epitaph of a city that has lost a large part of its young people.

A sign that originally proclaimed “Havana Lives in Me” has received a correction that is as simple as it is devastating. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, October 13, 2026 – Someone has decided to correct the official propaganda with a simple marker. At the corner of 23rd and G streets, in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood, a sign that originally proclaimed “Havana Lives in Me” has received a correction that is as simple as it is devastating. Over the printed letters, an anonymous hand added “There is no” and changed one word. The result comes much closer to the everyday experience of the capital’s residents: “There is no life in my Havana,” as if the city itself were dictating its epitaph.

The intervention did not require a team of restorers, an expert commission, or a budget allocation. All it took was a purple marker, a certain degree of calligraphic skill, and the conviction that the message, decorated with photographs of smiling children, urgently needed updating. The new version also has the virtue of being far more believable than the original.

The sign’s location adds another layer of irony. G Street, officially known as Presidents Avenue, was for years one of the main gathering places for young people in Havana. On its benches, walkways, and flower beds, emos, rockers, geeks, and other urban tribes gathered to express their differences, listen to music, fall in love, or simply spend the night away from family supervision. continue reading

The economic crisis has emptied pockets and streets, emigration has taken away a large portion of the young people, and police operations have helped discourage spontaneous gatherings

There was a time when, on weekends, the avenue was teeming with young people dressed in black, with dyed hair, piercings, and guitars. The emos even became the subject of international news reports, while the police tried to control youth gatherings that challenged, if only through their appearance, the uniformity promoted by those in power.

Nothing remains of that bustle. The economic crisis has emptied pockets and streets, emigration has taken away a large portion of the young people, and police operations have helped discourage spontaneous gatherings. Added to this is the demographic collapse of a country where fewer and fewer children are being born and farewells are commonplace. The avenue retains some of its trees, benches, and monuments, but it has lost much of the energy that once made it a place of gathering and rebellion.

The photographs on the sign show five smiling, healthy, carefree children. They represent a Havana that is supposed to be young and vibrant, although reality points in the opposite direction. The “there is no” added to the advertisement also sums up this absence. There is no fuel, no medicine, and no adequate transportation, but there are also no longer many of the young people who once filled G Street with their eccentricities, arguments, and desire to take on the world.

Where young people once gathered to show that they were alive, an unknown person has now had to write on a sign that the city has been a corpse for quite some time.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Other Lives of a Vendor on Reina Street in Centro Habana

Old fashion magazines allow a woman to imagine, for a few minutes, a world far from the everyday precariousness of Cuba.

The vendor carefully leafs through several fashion magazines rescued from the trash on Reina Street. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, October 3, 2026 / The model in the magazine is wearing an outfit that must once have been advertised as a must-have for the season. Perhaps she was photographed in Madrid, Paris or Miami, under carefully placed lights and after several hours of makeup. Now her fate is considerably less glamorous: she lies on the lap of a woman sitting in a doorway on Reina Street, in Centro Habana, a few meters from a garbage dump that has swallowed the sidewalk and is beginning to conquer part of the roadway as well.

This Saturday, the vendor carefully leafs through several fashion magazines rescued from the trash. Judging by the haircuts and the designs, they look like issues from the 90s or the early years of this century. Anywhere else they would be wastepaper; here they can still have a second, third or fourth life.

The rest of the business is displayed around her. A pair of old black high-heeled shoes rests on a box; there are brightly colored garments, scraps of fabric, the odd accessory, a purse and a small yellow basket. Everything seems to have passed through other hands before and, very probably, through one of the heaps of refuse that keep growing in the area. continue reading

She turns a page, brings the magazine close to her eyes and lingers over the dresses, the shoes and those models with endless legs

To set herself up, the woman has chosen the pedestal of an enormous column, with layers of peeling green paint and damp stains. She wears a blue scarf knotted over her hair and several bracelets. She also has a bottle of water and a small bag. She doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. She leafs through the magazines like someone consulting a catalog to decide what to wear next season.

For long minutes she seems to forget about selling. She turns a page, brings the magazine close to her eyes and lingers over the dresses, the shoes and those models with endless legs who pose in hotels, on avenues and in salons where nothing seems broken or dirty. For a while she can try on all those lives without paying a cent: walking in heels through a clean city, sitting down at a well-laid table, opening a closet full of clothes or, simply, getting up one morning without having to calculate which used object might be turned into a few pesos.

Then she turns another page and takes flight again. It matters little that the models have already aged twenty or thirty years, that those dresses have vanished from the stores or that the magazines ended up thrown away by someone. For her they still hold an intact world, a paper door to a less harsh life. Sitting against the old column on Reina, she is not just leafing through a fashion magazine: for a few minutes she is rehearsing the possibility that her life might have been different.

Translated by GH.

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A Neighborhood Market with “Better” Prices

The Ayestarán location awaits its official opening this Monday while customers protest an offering they consider expensive and limited.

Inside the Ayestarán Neighborhood Market, employees were finishing placing the products because, they said, today is the opening and “Government people” are coming. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, September 28, 2026 – At the doors of the brand-new Neighborhood Market on Ayestarán Street, in Havana, customers crowded together Monday morning. Several women approached the glass, shaded their eyes with their hands to overcome the reflections and inspected the shelves, which were still only half full. The door was closed. Inside, employees were finishing placing the products because, as one of them explained to 14ymedio, today is the opening and “Government people” are coming.

The establishment, located at 207 Ayestarán, between Néstor Sardiñas and Perfecto Lacoste, in the municipality of Cerro, is part of the Neighborhood Market project, an initiative that the Ministry of Domestic Trade has promoted as a formula for recovering state-owned premises and stabilizing the retail sale of basic products. According to the regulations, state-owned establishments are awarded through bidding for management by mipymes [small and medium-sized enterprises – SMSE in English], cooperatives, self-employed workers and other economic actors.

In Ayestarán, the newly painted blue-and-white premises certainly looks more presentable than many state-run stores in the capital and is light-years away from looking like the dilapidated ration-market bodegas. On the windows, Neighborhood Market signs alternate with the name Doña Luisa and the logo of DV Alimentos Sanos Super Deliverde. Inside there are new display cases, a refrigerator and shelves that this Monday still showed large empty spaces. continue reading

The 900-milliliter bottle of oil costs 2,600 pesos; a kilogram of powdered milk, 4,500; rice, 800, and black beans, 600. / 14ymedio

The anticipation, however, began to diminish when curious customers discovered the price list. The 900-milliliter bottle of oil costs 2,600 pesos; a kilogram of powdered milk, 4,500; rice, 800, and black beans, 600. Each egg costs 130 pesos, or 3,900 per carton. A can of tomato paste costs 1,000 pesos and a can of Spam, 1,100. The 500-gram package of luncheon meat sells for 900 pesos, while soap costs 380 and each roll of toilet paper, 190.

“I don’t see many products either,” said a woman leaning on a cane as she looked through the glass. The prices, she maintained, can also be found at some mipymes. Los Mercados de Barrio [Neighborhood Markets], according to what the authorities have announced, have a limited catalog that includes products such as vegetable oil, powdered milk, chicken, ground meat, rice, sugar and coffee, as well as cleaning supplies such as detergent, soap and toilet paper.

“This isn’t a Neighborhood Market, this is just any old mipyme,” another woman shouted toward the inside so the workers could hear her. “The milk is just as expensive as elsewhere, and the toilet paper is even more expensive,” she protested.

The reaction contrasts with the project’s official presentation. Just a few hours earlier, Minister of Domestic Trade Betsy Díaz Velázquez had inaugurated another Neighborhood Market in the Sierra Maestra housing development, in Boyeros. The official station Radio Rebelde said that these establishments seek to offer food and cleaning products at prices between 10% and 15% lower than those at other stores. The Government also grants incentives to private operators, including a tax rebate and exemption from rent during the first two years.

“I don’t see many products either,” said a woman leaning on a cane as she looked through the glass. / 14ymedio

The Cuban News Agency itself joined in the enthusiasm and said that there are already 24 establishments throughout the country operating through a “service administration and commercialization contract” between the selected economic actor and the state-owned company that owns the property. The official press presents the initiative as a possibility for reducing costs and prices thanks, among other advantages, to a 5% sales tax.

None of that tax framework consoled those doing the math in front of the Ayestarán door this Monday.

“Why are they going to open this if it’s the same thing the mipymes already have?” another woman asked. A passing man intervened to point out that, at least, the oil was cheaper than at other establishments. The response came immediately, almost like a chorus: “That oil isn’t cheap for anyone.”

In Ayestarán, the newly painted blue-and-white premises certainly looks more presentable than many state-run stores. / 14ymedio

“We settle for everything; this is really a scam,” another woman insisted. Around her, the others nodded as they continued mentally comparing the prices with salaries, pensions and what they had seen in other stores.

The scene summed up the challenge facing the commercial experiment. Since this is not a subsidized bodega, and no matter how many tax benefits they receive, prices will respond to the law of supply and demand.

“This is disrespectful,” one of the women concluded before walking away from the still-closed door. “They are making fun of us to our faces every day and we allow them to do it.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Havana, Water Now Arrives Faster on Wheels Than Through the Pipes

While breakdowns and blackouts disrupt pumping, a 1,000-liter tank delivered to your home can cost up to 15,000 pesos.

Water dispensers on Nueva del Pilar Street, in the Cerro municipality of Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, September 9, 2026 – There has been a great deal of activity since early morning on Nueva del Pilar Street, in Havana’s Cerro municipality. There, at giant dispensers, tanks are being filled that are now the capital’s main source of water supply. Whether by water trucks or electric tricycles, a service is being provided that blackouts and breakdowns have prevented from being delivered normally through the pipes for months.

This method is not cheap. A 1,000-liter tank delivered to a home costs between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos, and a 250-liter one costs between 2,500 and 3,000. If the water has to be pumped up to an elevated tank, the modern-day water carriers connect a motor and charge another 5,000 pesos.

At the Cerro water-supply point, however, private individuals can fill up for free, with the only requirement being to get a turn. “The enormous line that sometimes forms,” says Marilyn, a resident of Luyanó, who has gone several times knowing that this way she does not have to pay anything. “It’s outrageous that they want to charge that just for sending the water to people’s homes.”

If the water has to be pumped up to an elevated tank, the modern-day water carriers connect a motor and charge another 5,000 pesos. / 14ymedio

The mother of two teenagers says that in her neighborhood the situation is unsustainable because of the irregularity of the water pumping. “Before, you knew which day the water was scheduled, but now anything can happen, from them not turning it on the day it is supposed to come to going several days without receiving a drop.”

When it arrives, she says, the area “turns into a swarm of bottles and buckets going back and forth, because it comes with little pressure and not everyone gets any, only those who are in a lower position.” The latter, being luckier, help those who have none, to such an extent that their homes fill up with people carrying containers of every size. “The shortage is so severe that there are people who have already adapted to bathing with just one bottle of water,” Marilyn laments. “My aunts, for example, have gone to live together to help each other, and they wash themselves with the water that drips from the air conditioner.” continue reading

This is not a scene exclusive to Luyanó. On the streets of Havana, it is now a common sight to see people carrying buckets filled to the brim with both hands.

A 1,000-liter water tank, priced between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos. / 14ymedio

The water crisis, the severity of which the authorities acknowledged months ago, now frequently occupies the pages of the official press. This Tuesday, reported Cubadebate, Miguel Díaz-Canel himself “followed up” on the issue, visiting El Gato, the capital’s main water source, in Mayabeque. The system, with 17 wells, supplies almost 30% of the city, specifically the municipalities of Regla, Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padrón, Habana del Este, Cotorro, and Diez de Octubre.

In his usual voluntaristic prose, the president, accompanied by half a dozen senior officials – including the Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, and Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman – assured that there is an “investment and maintenance program” that includes the “elimination of leaks in the well field and pipelines,” the “completion of pumping equipment,” and “actions to guarantee electrical stability.”

In a first stage, the official website reports, “we are trying to coordinate the electrical supply, so that we can provide generators to prevent a blackout from causing an interruption in the service, and at the same time we are working on the sites to move toward the definitive stage, which is with renewable sources.”

Referring to the economic measures announced last June, he said that “many possibilities are opening up as a result of the transformations that the country has proposed in economic and social matters,” but then objected: “That truth will not bear fruit on its own.” For this to happen, he explained – assigning responsibility to private individuals – “it depends, among other premises, on the boldness and creativity of those who are in charge of some undertaking.”

Taking advantage of the trip to Mayabeque, he also visited the Boris Luis Santa Coloma sugar mill, in Madruga, without mentioning that, like all the sugar mills on the Island, it is shut down. In San José de las Lajas, he went to the Amistad Cubano Vietnamita Basic Business Unit (UEB), dedicated to the genetic improvement of chickens.

At this last stop, there was also no shortage of praise for renewables, which are insufficient to offset the unprecedented fuel crisis: “Solar panels have also been installed there, because energy autonomy is one of the great battles of those who seek, right now, to move forward in any worthwhile undertaking.”

At the Cerro water-supply point, however, private individuals can fill up for free, with the only requirement being to get a turn. / 14ymedio

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Old Cargo Truck Converted into a Water Tanker Makes Its Way Through the Streets of Havana

The tank fitted into the truck’s cargo compartment illustrates the precariousness of a city battered by blackouts and breakdowns.

Any truck that can still start may end up being converted into a water tanker, even as garbage piles up on street corners because there are not enough vehicles to collect it. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, September 5, 2026 – At first glance, it looks like an old cargo truck stopped alongside the curb. But a look at the back reveals the contraption. A cylindrical tank has been installed inside the vehicle’s cargo bed, and at one end an outlet allows the water to be discharged. The result is an improvised water tanker, one of those emergency solutions that in Havana eventually become part of the landscape as if they had always been there.

The vehicle, seen by 14ymedio on Reina Street in Centro Habana, retains virtually intact the structure of an old Soviet-made Kamaz. The tank has been fitted inside the compartment originally intended to transport cargo, far removed from the configuration of a truck specifically built to carry liquids. The adaptation is rudimentary, but apparently it does the job.

The scene would be little more than a mechanical curiosity if it did not appear amid the severe supply crisis affecting the capital. In recent months, dozens of neighborhoods have suffered prolonged interruptions caused by breaks in water mains, equipment being out of service, leaks, and above all, blackouts that leave pumping systems without electricity.

This summer, several Havana residents have reported prices of between 40,000 and 60,000 pesos for a water tanker

Recent breakdowns in systems such as Cuenca Sur and Oeste have affected densely populated municipalities, including Centro Habana, Cerro, Plaza de la Revolución, Diez de Octubre, Playa, and Boyeros. Aguas de La Habana reports almost daily on new interruptions caused by lack of electricity, breakdowns, and repair work. The problem of obtaining electricity thus adds another increasingly basic problem: turning on the tap and having water continue reading

come out.

When the network stops working, water tankers go from being an auxiliary service to becoming a lifeline. But even for that, resources are not plentiful. Vehicles in good condition, with spare parts and fuel, are also scarce, and the Government itself has acknowledged difficulties in meeting distribution schedules using tanker trucks.

The shortage has also created a lucrative informal market. This summer, several Havana residents have reported prices of between 40,000 and 60,000 pesos for a water tanker, with some cases reaching as high as 80,000, depending on the neighborhood and the buyer’s urgency. Just a few years ago, in 2021, getting a water tanker on the black market cost between 400 and 600 pesos.

A resident of Luyanó tells this newspaper that the supply crisis has fueled a growing informal business around water. “In areas where water never comes in, they have to buy it for 2,500 pesos per tank, a 20-liter bottle for 300 pesos, or spend 100 pesos for a frozen water cucumber [Mexican beverage made from cucumber, water, lime juice and sugar],” she explains.

One service plugs another’s hole and, meanwhile, the precariousness keeps going around in circles

The lack of water also drives residents into the streets. Protests by residents tired of going days without service have been recorded in several parts of Havana, some involving mothers with their children. At the end of August, Sady Campanioni, a Havana mother who had spent days reporting that no water was reaching her block and had publicly demanded a fairer distribution, was arrested. Her arrest showed the extent to which a supply crisis can lead to punitive actions by the authorities, when demanding a basic service ends up provoking surveillance, threats, or arrests.

The Kamaz truck on Reina Street sums up this chain of shortages. Faced with a lack of specialized equipment, a tank is installed on an old truck, extending a little further the useful life of a machine that arrived on the Island decades ago.

The same logic is repeated inside people’s homes. In houses, any bucket, bottle, cooking pot, or tank serves to store water when it finally appears. On the street, any truck that can still start may end up being converted into a water tanker, even as garbage piles up on street corners because there are not enough vehicles to collect it. One service plugs another’s hole and, meanwhile, the precariousness keeps going around in circles.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba a Liter of Oil Now Costs More Than Two Months of the Minimum Wage

Despite the high price, some drivers use it in diesel vehicles when they can’t find fuel.

The 4,500 pesos verified by this newspaper don’t even represent the extreme end of the escalation. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, August 5, 2026 / Two bottles of sunflower oil, placed on plastic crates on a Havana sidewalk this Wednesday, encapsulate much of the Cuban crisis. The street vendor was asking 4,500 pesos for each, while also selling canned goods, packages of spaghetti, and packs of cigarettes. The price, verified by 14ymedio, has turned one of the most basic ingredients in the island’s cuisine into a luxury.

To buy that liter, a worker earning the minimum monthly wage of 2,100 pesos would have to hand over two months’ salary plus another 300 pesos. At Wednesday’s informal exchange rate, the bottle was equivalent to about $6.67 or €5.70.

The conversion, however, barely allows us to measure the chasm. In Spain, where incomes are much higher, a liter of refined sunflower oil costs between €1.75 and €2.85 in chains like Dia or Carrefour. For a Cuban living on their salary, on the other hand, the price seen in Havana represents more than 60 full days of work.

The 4,500 pesos verified by this newspaper doesn’t even represent the extreme of the price increase. Social media posts show bottles being offered for 6,000 pesos, demonstrating the extent to which speculation can go with a product that until recently had a maximum retail price of 990 pesos per liter.

The government eliminated that price cap in July, after the measure led to shortages, black market sales, and a widening gap between official prices and the actual cost of imports. Without enough stock to meet demand, the administrative limit ultimately drove the oil out of regulated stores, but it did not reduce its price on the black market. continue reading

The practice is technically possible on certain older engines and can keep them running temporarily, but it involves risks.

Now some local governments are trying to curb the uncontrolled price increases through inspections and “agreed-upon prices.” The Guantánamo Municipal Administration Council, for example, set the retail price of a bottle of oil at 2,200 pesos after studying the prices reported by local merchants. Without an increase in supply, these decisions risk repeating the history of previous price caps.

In addition to the demand for cooking oil, another unusual and revealing aspect of the energy crisis has emerged. Videos posted on social media show drivers pouring vegetable oil into the fuel tanks of diesel vehicles as a desperate alternative to fuel shortages.

This practice is technically possible in certain older engines and can keep them running temporarily, but it carries risks. Cooking oil is not biodiesel, and its higher viscosity can clog injectors, leave deposits, and ultimately damage the system.

In Cuba, plagued by blackouts and empty gas stations, the liter of fuel a family needs to fry an egg competes with the liter a truck driver pours into his tank to complete a trip. On the makeshift platform of that Havana sidewalk, the yellowed bottles encapsulated the scale of the disaster. This staple food is also an emergency fuel and a commodity whose price exceeds the minimum wages of two months work.

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Evicted In Havana Two Weeks Ago, Cubans Are Sleeping On the Street

The building where they lived, at the corner of Campanario and Neptuno streets, has suffered several partial collapses.

The group, which includes elderly people and children, remains in front of the building with their belongings: chairs, tables, a bed, a stove, and even windows. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 July 2026 / A dozen residents of 264 Campanario Street, at the corner of Neptuno, in Central Havana, have been sleeping on the street since they were evicted from their building by authorities more than two weeks ago, due to the risk of collapse. The group, which includes elderly people and children, remains in front of the building with their belongings: chairs, tables, a bed, a stove, and even windows.

The evicted families have demanded explanations from the local government, according to a complaint posted on social media by Zol Arias, but so far their pleas have been ignored. They were evicted but offered no alternative.

“They demand an answer and all they do is pass the buck while they remain in the street,” the user says in a comment, in which she states that although she now lives outside of Cuba, it was her old home and her mother and brother are still there.

“They are asked for an answer and all they do is pass the buck while they remain in the street.”

From the outside, the building appears to be in very poor condition, having lost a large part of its balconies. The interior also shows signs of collapse. For this reason, the police have cordoned off the street.

Central Havana is, after Old Havana, the most deteriorated neighborhood in the capital, and Neptuno Street itself has been the scene of several collapses. One of them, a balcony collapse continue reading

in 2022, fortunately caused no injuries .

There was an injury, last September, when a woman was walking along San Lázaro Street, between Hospital and Espada, when a balcony collapsed. According to witnesses who spoke to 14ymedio at the time, “a rock fell on her and made her roll to the edge of the sidewalk,” requiring her to be hospitalized.

From the outside, the building appears to be in very poor condition, and has lost a large part of its balconies. / 14ymedio

A month before that incident, an elderly woman was injured when a building partially collapsed on Reina Street , between Manrique and San Nicolás, also in Central Havana. The woman was hospitalized, and nearly 15 families were left homeless, their furniture and appliances piled up in the street. That night, most had to spend it outdoors, and, according to one of the affected families who spoke to this newspaper, on that first day “no one” from the government came to check on their situation.

In a partial collapse of a building on the corner of San Rafael and Galiano streets, in the same municipality and also in August 2025, an employee of Café Boulevard, located on the ground floor, died. The collapse of part of the roof trapped several people. According to neighbors who spoke to this newspaper at the time, the building has a tenement on the upper floor with infrastructure problems and overcrowding. Part of the roof collapsed on the café’s employees, and one of them died under the rubble. The entire block where the building is located shows alarming signs of deterioration and lack of maintenance.

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The Cohiba Hotel in Havana Still Bears the Meliá Sign – For Now

A visit to the property disproves a viral video about the sign’s removal.

Main marquee of the Cohiba Hotel in Havana, this July 28, 2026, still bearing the word Meliá.

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 28, 2026 / The definitive departure from Cuba of the Spanish chain Meliá is certainly historic, but its letters still adorn the marquee of the Cohiba Hotel, in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. 14ymedio was able to confirm this in person this very Tuesday, thereby debunking a viral video showing two workers removing the sign, just behind the flags, at the main entrance on Paseo street in Vedado.

It cannot be determined whether those images, circulated on social media – originally from an account that no longer exists – and picked up by independent media, were created with artificial intelligence or are a composite based on some old photographic record of maintenance work, or even of the moment when the current lettering was installed to replace the original from the 1990s. The private company whose workers wear the same uniform seen in the video, Diamante Azul, already worked at the same property in 2025, which in 2022, following the covid-19 pandemic, underwent a renovation.

What is certain is that as of July 28, four days after the hotel chain ceased operations on the island, its name still stands there, repeated twice, next to Cohiba and at the main entrance.

It is likely, however, that it won’t last much longer. The word Meliá has already been removed from the very top of the building, as can be observed from a certain distance. continue reading

Exactly one week ago, the company, which had been in Cuba since 1990 and came to manage 34 hotels – all owned by the Cuban State – announced its definitive withdrawal, after attempting to keep managing the 19 properties that did not belong to Gaesa, which had recently been sanctioned by the United States. Iberostar announced the same on that same day.

The word Meliá has already been removed from the very top of the building, as can be observed from a certain distance.

The decision was to take effect as of Friday, and since then Habaneros have been living in anticipation of when the traces of the chain would be removed from its most iconic locations, such as the Cohiba, where they remain visible not only on the marquee but on napkins, coasters, and carpets.

Asked about the fake images, the receptionist told this newspaper that she “had seen the video on social media” and that “they must have already taken down the sign.” Neither when entering nor leaving her workstation did she make the effort to look up to check.

Translated by GH.

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Cuba’s National Aquarium Turns Into a Consumer Fair

A family can spend thousands of pesos before even getting close to the dolphins or seals

“Only people with remittance income can come here, because this is a palace of consumption./ 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, July 25, 2026 / Hundreds of people were waiting this past Friday shortly before 10 a.m. for Cuba’s National Aquarium to open. The lack of small change was delaying ticket sales, heightening the anticipation. It had been a long time since the center, located in Havana’s Miramar neighborhood, drew such a crowd. The last time, in fact, that 14ymedio visited the site, it seemed unable to recover in any way from the decline into which it had fallen in recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To breathe some life into it this summer, the State has carried out two strategies: concentrating visits into fewer days of the week – at first, only from Friday to Sunday, though starting next week Wednesdays will be included – and organizing a “festival” called Pa’ Cuba. It is run by Grupo Palco, the entity belonging to the military conglomerate Gaesa in charge of organizing fairs, sales, and exhibitions.

“Some people come here just to kill their hunger,” says one worker. / 14ymedio

And indeed, more visitors can be seen at the Aquarium, but in exchange, very little attention is paid to the animals. “There are people who haven’t even seen the fish yet, but they’re already in line for a cafeteria that sells bread with cheese for 150 pesos,” lamented one worker. “Some people come here just to kill their hunger,” she admitted candidly.

The kiosks selling all kinds of goods and food, as well as the tents with the most varied attractions, were indeed more appealing – provided, of course, that one was willing to part with cash.

Tartlets for 700 pesos, lemonade for 1,000 pesos, or a frappuccino for 2,800 were some of the prices in the food area. “And sugarcane juice, 300, 400, and 500 pesos,” noted a retiree who had brought her grandchildren to spend the day. And she complained: “They’re really squeezing continue reading

people dry here.”

“All you can do is touch them, nothing more.” With payment required beforehand, of course: 1,300 pesos, for example, to interact with the sea lion. / 14ymedio

Rather than the country’s main center for marine species research, it was a genuine variety fair. At the stalls one could see anything from sneakers for 26,500 pesos to dolls priced between 4,000 and 10,000 pesos, as well as Bluetooth speakers for 19,500 pesos or knockoff soccer jerseys – including an old one from Spain, the reigning World Cup champion – for 20,000 pesos.

Some of the stalls, a knowledgeable visitor noted, “belong to private vendors.” At these, one could pay in either pesos or dollars.

As for the attractions for children, they weren’t cheap either: 300 pesos for the mechanical bull, 500 pesos for the zip line, 850 for face painting, 1,500 pesos for tattoos, 3,000 pesos for an hour… Didn’t the Aquarium have dolphin and seal shows? “Not right now,” answered a worker. “All you can do is touch them, nothing more.” With payment required beforehand, of course: 1,300 pesos, for example, to interact with the sea lion.

While the food and recreation areas were packed, the corridors with the fish tanks looked empty. / 14ymedio

None of that was reflected in the words of Mabel Góngora Leal, head of the Aquarium’s Marketing and Communications department, when she announced the opening of the Pa’ Cuba festival in the state media on June 18. “The aquarium is a scientific, educational, and recreational center, and environmental education is essential here,” the official said. In the same forum, Góngora acknowledged that the place had been “depressed” and that it had nearly “hit rock bottom,” although, she added, “we never closed,” and she expressed satisfaction over the “small” recovery in visitor numbers they were seeing.

Some visitors did not agree with this view. “This place is here to raid people’s pockets,” said a Centro Habana resident who had come to the Aquarium with her mother and her two children to relieve the children’s boredom. Transportation to get there cost them 13,500 pesos, on top of which the family had to pay for tickets – 150 pesos for adults and 50 for children. “We don’t have much left to enjoy, and without money you can barely do anything.”

“This place is here to raid people’s pockets.” / 14ymedio

Lydia, another Havana resident, agrees, with one caveat: “It’s a good entertainment option for the kids, because in the end there aren’t many options for them right now, not to say there are none at all. The children are locked up at home all day, suffering through blackouts and water shortages.” Still, she conceded: “Only people with remittance income can come here, because this is a palace of consumption.”

While the food and recreation areas were packed, the corridors with the fish tanks looked empty. Workers were filling the sea turtles’ tank, the turtles hidden from the sun beneath a rock in the meantime. They had emptied it, an employee explained to this newspaper, to remove the leaves and seeds that fall from the trees. “Now we’re filling it back up.”

Once they had finished their breakfast, visitors began walking through those areas as well. A father, trying to be funny, said to his son: “The fish look good enough to eat.” There was still hunger there.

Translated by GH

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Residents of Luyanó in Havana Block a Street Over Lack of Water

Dozens of protests over power outages continue across Havana.
The Government’s response remains repression: Cubalex warns of the enforced disappearance of six protesters in Guantánamo.

Stones and trash were left blocking the road after the protest on Avenida México, popularly known as Cristina, in El Cerro, Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 17, 2026 – Power outages and protests now go hand in hand in Cuba. This Friday, on México Avenue in Havana’s Cerro municipality, 14ymedio came across the remnants of the previous night’s protest: large rocks, piles of garbage, and even a chair remained in the roadway, forcing vehicles to maneuver around them. As shown in videos shared on social media, dozens of residents took to the streets banging pots and pans and blocked the road after spending 24 hours without electricity. Several hours later, the barricades had still not been removed. When contacted by this newspaper, one resident declined to comment out of fear of police surveillance.

The sector chief went to speak with the residents, who were blocking the street with a sign demanding “Water and electricity.” / 14ymedio

This newspaper also documented another protest in Luyanó this Friday, in broad daylight. Residents who had gone more than 24 hours without electricity blocked several side streets with empty buckets, branches, and metal objects. Their main demand was summed up on a sign: “Water and Electricity.” According to one resident, the lack of water was what angered the neighborhood the most. “I’m about ready to go to the Malecón and drink salt water,” he said. The neighborhood police officer arrived to speak with residents, and shortly afterward electricity service was restored. Authorities promised to send a water tanker, but by midday it had still not arrived. Residents decided to keep one street blocked until it did.

Residents will keep the side street blocked until the water tanker arrives. / 14ymedio

On Thursday night, from the 14ymedio newsroom, loud pot-banging protests could be heard coming from several apartment buildings in Nuevo Vedado, near Boyeros and Conill. Residents had been without electricity for more than 28 hours. Service was restored for only about an hour and a half, by which time refrigerators had already thawed and the building’s water supply had been completely exhausted. When the power went out again, the largest and longest pot-banging protest the neighborhood could remember began, something unusual given that it’s inhabited mostly by government officials and state employees.

In some parts of the capital, blackouts now exceed 72 hours. The lack of electricity has also worsened the water crisis: residents in numerous municipalities report going weeks without water. The outages occur one after another, and the few hours of electricity available are barely enough continue reading

to recharge batteries, much less pump water.

Along with the energy crisis, reports of illegal payments within the electric utility have also begun to surface. “Corruption in the National Electric Union is running rampant,” a Luyanó resident told this newspaper. “Not long ago, the neighbors here had to pay for workers to come repair a breakdown. We had been without electricity for almost 24 hours and had to pay them to do what is supposed to be their job.” According to residents, the practice of paying to be connected to privileged circuits in order to reduce blackout times has also become widespread.

Residents of San Miguel del Padrón voiced similar complaints during Thursday’s protests, which also took place in broad daylight. Neighbors alleged that some utility workers prioritize restoring power to certain circuits in exchange for money. “People pay them to come restore the electricity, and that’s why other neighborhoods are left without stable power,” one resident told Martí Noticias. “The workers know how desperate we are because of the energy crisis, and they’re charging money.”

Similarly, videos shared from Calabazar, in the Boyeros municipality, show several residents detaining two people who, according to witnesses, were electric utility employees negotiating to prioritize certain circuits in exchange for payment. According to accounts from local residents, the two individuals were later arrested by police. Other videos show dozens of neighborhood residents gathered in the streets chanting slogans demanding the restoration of electricity service and denouncing the lack of transparency in the operations of the state utility.

Barricades remained on the avenue after Thursday’s protests in El Cerro. / 14ymedio

Guanabacoa was another of the capital’s major flashpoints. There, residents marched through the streets in groups after three days without electricity and one month without water, chanting, “Water and electricity!” According to accounts shared on social media, residents from different neighborhoods joined the same protest. Those posts say that government officials arrived to try to calm the demonstrators and promised that service would be restored.

In San Isidro, Old Havana, videos show residents shouting directly against the Government and Miguel Díaz-Canel, denouncing that they have gone four days without electricity or water. One woman, shouting with a trembling voice, urged the “tough guys” of the neighborhood to bravely stand up to the police.

Engineer and private entrepreneur Yulieta Hernández Díaz also wrote on her social media profile this Friday that residents in her Playa neighborhood held a pot-banging protest that lasted an hour and only ended when electricity returned. According to her account, residents had accumulated nearly 100 hours without power, regained electricity for just two hours, and then endured another 31 hours in darkness. “I think we’ve gone 13 days without water and counting. I’ve already lost track; my neighbors tell me it’s been 16 days. We’ve even collected rainwater,” she wrote.

The Government’s response to the protests continues to be repression. Activist Gisselle Ordoñez, known on social media as Zea Gisselle, wrote a detailed account this Friday explaining that she had been summoned and questioned by State Security agents at a police station in Havana, where she was interrogated about her participation in protests and her social media posts.

“I have no President, no Homeland, and no country; what I have is the neighborhood where I was born, the place where I came into the world and where I grew up, an island, a piece of land”

According to her account, the agents accused her of “exercising leadership” during protests in her neighborhood, documenting police operations, and sharing content on social media that they claimed served opposition interests. The activist denied belonging to any organization or receiving funding but clearly expressed her position: “I have no President, no Homeland, and no country; what I have is the neighborhood where I was born, the place where I came into the world and where I grew up, an island, a piece of land.”

According to the activist, the interview ended with her signing a formal warning. In it, Gisselle wrote that she pledged “not to change her way of thinking” while trying not to commit offenses established in the Penal Code.

Pressure against those who take part in protests has also spread to other provinces. This Friday, the independent organization Cubalex reported the enforced disappearance of at least six people detained after a protest over power outages that took place Tuesday night in the Loma del Chivo neighborhood of Guantánamo. According to the organization, State Security and police officers filmed the protesters and later arrested them.

So far, two of the detainees have been identified: Yeansg Carlos Pérez George and Cristian Jesús Bergondo George. Cubalex says their relatives do not know the whereabouts of any of the six detainees and have remained outside the State Security Department’s Operations Unit in Guantánamo, where they report having been mistreated by authorities.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana: An Oasis of Cleanliness in Línea, Mountains of Garbage in Neighboring Streets

The El Rampeño project is yielding results on a very small scale in waste collection with a small fleet of tricycles.

“I don’t know if this project will be sustainable in the long term or if the vehicles will hold up, but for now it seems to be working,” said a local resident. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 15, 2026 [updated]/ One hundred pesos and a street mark the boundary between living with a garbage dump in front of you and having clean sidewalks. The El Rampeño Local Development Project has just completed its 15th day, and its success can be considered resounding. A tour of the areas included in the garbage collection service provided by the initiative is enough to confirm that hygiene is not utopian.

So far, this involves four very small zones in the Rampa neighborhood of Plaza de la Revolución. 14ymedio walked through the two largest zones this Wednesday and saw only a single bag, apparently left out outside of the scheduled collection times—there are two collections, at 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.—after the electric tricycle used for waste collection had already passed. A few empty cans, a cigarette pack… the small items discarded by people after consuming drugs were the only blemishes on this otherwise clean oasis.

’14ymedio’ walked along the two largest streets this Wednesday and saw only one isolated bag, apparently left by someone outside of the designated hours. / 14ymedio

“I don’t know if this project will be sustainable in the long term or if the vehicles will hold up, but for now it seems to be working and there aren’t any major garbage problems,” said a local resident.

It’s enough to turn the corner to see the striking contrast. At the intersection of 17th and L, where El Rampeño is no longer operating, the garbage dump is the telltale sign. The bins are overflowing and the piles of waste, along with the stench, have returned to the area, once one of the most well-maintained in the capital. In the more distant neighborhoods, the situation is repeated even at the doors of health institutions, such as the mountain of waste accumulating continue reading

in front of the 14 de Junio polyclinic on Acierto Street in Luyanó.

The El Rampeño initiative was announced on June 30th, one day before the service began. Pedro Garcés, the local council delegate and tireless activist, presented the project to the official press. The project is funded through state contributions for the electric tricycles, municipal contributions (including a 1% local tax), and private contributions. The price is 100 pesos per household, except for those whose residents are classified as vulnerable.

At the intersection of 17th and L streets, where El Rampeño is no longer operating, the landfill is the sign. / 14ymedio

The main fees, the amount of which is unknown, will come from state-owned and private companies in the area, and a special rate is charged for nighttime collection. In addition, El Rampeño will also profit from the sale of recyclable materials.

A mountain of garbage is piling up in front of the 14 de Junio polyclinic, on Acierto Street, in Luyanó. / 14ymedio

These funds are being used to hire the staff responsible for garbage collection. The project stated that it had planned for an approximate salary of 15,000 pesos, although this would depend on the specific role. In a report by 14ymedio last December, street sweepers in the capital told this newspaper that their salary was around $10, less than half of what is offered for this service.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on the service this week and interviewed one of its workers, Lile Esperanza Pérez, who applied for the job and says she is more than satisfied. “It’s the best thing we can do,” she says, raising her eyes to the sky as she hopes the service will be extended to the entire city and country so that “beautiful Havana” can be seen again.

In the short video, the workers claim that the population is disciplined and increasingly punctual in appearing with their bags when they see the tricycle approaching. What the Chinese report doesn’t show is what lies on the other side of the street in a Cuba where the differences are becoming increasingly apparent.

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PedroCarr Private Company Sells Viazul Tickets in Euros From Abroad

While finding any transportation in pesos has become an ordeal, the private company offers routes across the Island to those who can pay in foreign currency.

A brand-new PedroCarr bus stands out in a city battered by the transportation crisis. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez / Alejandro de Cañas, July 2, 2026 – A large PedroCarr bus, with the company’s logo prominently displayed on its side, left passersby in Central Havana astonished this Thursday. In the midst of Cuba’s transportation crisis, seeing luggage being loaded and passengers about to board is nothing short of a miracle.

PedroCarr, a private small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), has just opened a much easier option for those who can pay from abroad. On Wednesday, the company launched a digital platform to book interprovincial trips, hotel transfers, and transportation from Cuban airports, with fares listed in euros.

“Travel through Cuba with us,” the private company announces in a social media campaign. Through its new website, PedroCarr promises “fast and secure” reservations, bus rentals for excursions and events, as well as connections between the Island’s main cities and tourist destinations.

The company says its regular services in Cuban pesos will continue operating “under the same conditions and accessibility as always.” However, the launch is clearly aimed at Cubans living abroad who pay for their relatives’ travel and foreign tourists—two groups with access to hard currency in a country where the average state salary barely covers a fraction of the cost of any trip sold in euros. continue reading

PedroCarr also offers a downloadable 28-page fare schedule explicitly labeled “Viazul Service Fares”

The most striking aspect is not only the announcement itself but also the documents available on the website. PedroCarr allows users to download a 28-page fare schedule explicitly titled “Viazul Service Fares,” listing routes from airports, provincial capitals, hotels, and tourist destinations across the country.

From Terminal 3 of José Martí International Airport, for example, a transfer to Old Havana costs 10 euros. A trip to Las Tunas is listed at 44 euros, Holguín at 50 euros, Santiago de Cuba at 60 euros, and Baracoa at 74 euros. The fares include two suitcases and vary for children, round trips, and multi-destination itineraries.

The document is virtually identical to the one used by Viazul, the service operated by the state-owned National Bus Company, traditionally aimed at tourists and passengers paying in foreign currency. PedroCarr does not explain in its announcement whether it acts as an intermediary, a ticketing agency, or a transportation contractor for Viazul, nor does it specify what portion of the fare remains with the private company.

The platform presents itself as a bus transportation management and reservation system, but the network of routes it offers covers virtually the entire country, from Viñales to Baracoa, as well as airports, island resorts, and hotel complexes.

PedroCarr is not a newly created company. Cuba’s Ministry of Economy and Planning included it in its official registry of new economic actors as a private SME based in the municipality of Las Tunas, dedicated to ground passenger transportation. It was authorized in 2022 during the first major wave of small and medium-sized enterprises approved by the Government.

In February of this year, the company’s own fleet consisted of ten Yutong buses and seven Foton minibuses, in addition to another 17 leased vehicles.

Behind the business is Pedro Yosvany Carbonell Fernández, known as El Chino. The official Las Tunas newspaper 26 identified him in 2022 as the manager of what was then called Pedrocar y Socio, noting that the project began on May 8 of that year. Its original goal was to transport passengers between Las Tunas and Havana.

A Prensa Latina report published in February of this year refers to him as president of PedroCarr and states that the company operated the Havana–Puerto Padre and Havana–Las Tunas routes with fares in Cuban pesos. To acquire its buses, the private company obtained financing through an unidentified Spanish institution, arranged via Consultoría Internacional. PedroCarr also worked with foreign suppliers, including China’s Yutong Bus and Mexico’s Sunshine Best.

At that time, the company’s own fleet consisted of ten Yutong buses and seven Foton minibuses. Those 17 vehicles were supplemented by another 17 leased from the state-owned National Bus Company, giving PedroCarr a total of 34 vehicles under its management. The launch of a platform offering connections throughout the Island now points to a further expansion of its operations.

The service exists, the bus and fuel appear without problems, and reservations can be made without long lines… but in euros.

The private company’s growth has therefore taken place hand in hand with public institutions. PedroCarr has marketed transportation capacity through state bus terminals and has operated in a sector where fuel shortages, lack of spare parts, and vehicle scarcity have left numerous state-run routes paralyzed.

For a Cuban living on the Island, paying 44 euros for a trip from Havana Airport to Las Tunas amounts to tens of thousands of pesos on the informal market. For a relative paying from Miami or Madrid, however, it may be a quick solution when state-run tickets are impossible to obtain.

That contrast summarizes the direction much of the Cuban economy has taken. The service exists, the buses and fuel are readily available, and reservations can be made without long lines, but only if someone, usually from abroad, has euros.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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