The fuel crisis is forcing bus routes to be reduced, the sugar harvest to be halted in Sancti Spíritus, and an international congress with 1,500 participants to be canceled.
14ymedio, Havana, Olea Gallardo, February 6, 2026 – A critical shortage of basic medicines, the cancelation of surgeries, and the suspension of transport for outpatient patients: This is, for now, the situation in many hospitals in Cuba in the face of an unprecedented fuel crisis, which the regime has not even named this time. “Contingency or emergency, I don’t know,” a provincial Public Health employee told 14ymedio, asking for anonymity. “Because the president talked and talked but said nothing. He was asked everything and dodged everything, and said that other people would be in charge of explaining the energy issue.”
She was referring to Miguel Díaz-Canel’s appearance this Thursday, when the president stated that the government has designed a plan to deal with the fuel shortage that has worsened since the U.S. intervention in Venezuela on January 3. But he did not specify any concrete measures beyond voluntarist promises and the usual victimizing slogans against the “imperial government” and the “enemy.” “We are going to live through difficult times,” he limited himself to saying, betting on overcoming obstacles with one of his favorite phrases, “creative resistance.”
Díaz-Canel did announce that “a group of ministers and vice ministers will gradually provide information” about the measures, approximately “in a week,” but in some institutions the restrictions are already being made known. This is the case in Health, as the worker detailed to this newspaper.
“They’re discharging a lot of inpatients,” she says, “and gathering all the information on available resources to see where savings can be made.”
“All surgeries and the transportation of patients from other municipalities are canceled due to a lack of fuel,” she reports, asking that the name of the hospital where she works be withheld, where a “contingency” has been in effect since yesterday. “They’re discharging many of the hospitalized patients,” she adds, “and compiling all the information on available resources to see where cuts can be made.”
The list lays out the panorama. “We have diesel for 160 hours, and the boilers are covered for two days. We have propane for 47 days, but the incinerator has almost no burning capacity, just enough for 1.8 days,” she recounts. The shortage of medicines is also striking: “There is no pethidine to relieve labor pains, no analgesics in general, no antihypertensives, no hydration serum, no catheters, no gauze: it’s all at zero.”
As for antibiotics, she continues, coverage is also “very low”: Encomed, the Medicines Marketing Company, promised a delivery, but “didn’t have fuel to bring it and nothing has arrived.” For patients undergoing hemodialysis, they have concentrate for three days, and hospital disinfectant for seven.
As for food, she says they have rice and grains for about 15 days, but “protein is almost gone. There’s ground meat for two days and chicken for three.” Although the employee trusts that “they’ll come up with something, because we’re not going to die,” there is still uncertainty about possible solutions.
In the absence of government statements, information passed by word of mouth is proliferating. A healthcare worker at a polyclinic in Ciego de Ávila told 14ymedio that they have been warned that only the emergency ward will be maintained and that doctors must bring “their rechargeable lamp to work.”
On social media, reports say that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments
The sugar harvest in Sancti Spíritus, already meager, has been halted, according to an employee at the Melanio Hernández mill. “They ordered state transportation and everything in general to stop,” the man says.
Likewise, on social media, it is reported that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments.
“This was the message that guests at the Valentin Perla Blanca hotel in Cayo Santa María received this morning,” wrote Adelth Bonne Gamboa on social media this Thursday, illustrating the post with an image of the letter distributed by the customer service team. “Not even the employees themselves know the reason for the closure,” the activist explained; “they were simply informed this morning that the facilities would stop operating at 4:00 pm today.”
Officially, for now, very few agencies have published concrete measures. One of them is the Provincial Directorate of the Isle of Youth, which, among nearly twenty points, calls for leaving “only indispensable administrative personnel” at workplaces and decrees the “total shutdown” of electricity service in state buildings throughout the weekend, including Friday, as well as the closure of boarding schools and “recreational areas and bars.”
In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of investments in the territory are halted,” including those of the Electric Company, Agriculture, and Fisheries. This contrasts with Díaz-Canel’s words yesterday, when he explained that if there were areas with more blackouts, specifically in Havana and during the day, it was because resources were being prioritized for actions that would activate the economy.
As for the territory’s connection with the rest of the country, it remains up in the air: the statement indicates that the departure of the ferry Perseverancia is “being evaluated” “once or twice a week depending on fuel availability and the guarantee of transportation from Batabanó to Havana.”
In Las Tunas, as of this Friday, national bus departures to Camagüey, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba have been suspended “due to the worsening availability of fuel in the country.” Only one route to Havana remains, the 9:00 pm “express,” and the alternate route to Matanzas is also suspended. It will not be the only measure, reported Tiempo 21, but the next ones to be announced—“related primarily to national passenger transportation, especially rail service”—are being studied.
In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of investments in the territory are halted,” including those of the Electric Company, Agriculture, and Fisheries
For its part, the University of Havana has decreed, among other resolutions, the “postponement” of the international congress that was to be held in just a few days, which was expected to bring together more than 1,500 delegates, 500 of them from 32 countries, and the extension of the “hybrid modality to all degree programs and Higher University Technician programs,” starting this Friday and for 30 days.
If one looks to the official press for information on the measures, only reporter Elsa Ramos of Escambray asks relevant questions: “How is priority established for distributing the little fuel that reaches service stations? Why are sales in dollars prioritized? Why are cards topped up and charges made if there is no backing in cash? To what extent is it true that the sale of gas, when it appears, will be in dollars?”
The official she interviews, Camilo Pérez Pérez, coordinator of Government Programs and Objectives in Sancti Spíritus, doesn’t fully answer everything, but he is forced to offer some details. For example, the order for the Dairy Company to transport milk “in different thermoses” to reduce vehicle mileage, or the rehabilitation of ovens at the Food Company to produce bread “with firewood.”
In Education, Pérez indicates, without details, that “alternatives are being applied” both for student transportation and food preparation, “mainly in boilers,” where “savings can be made.”
Likewise, the official acknowledged that “at this moment there is no guarantee for private carriers linked to passenger transportation, since only state vehicles are being prioritized due to restrictions.” He did, however, rule out the feared “zero option” that has been on everyone’s lips in Cuba in recent weeks: “We have never been at zero. It has been fairly responsible work, above all by all the consuming entities, and with good communication and alerts about the difficulties we may have in each place. Decisions have been made and services have been guaranteed.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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