Massive power outages in Cuba left many people waking up Friday unaware that US President Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to the Caribbean island.
As the news spread in Havana and beyond, anger and anguish surged over the decision, which will only make life harder for Cubans already struggling under US sanctions.
“This is war,” said Lázaro Alfonso, an 89-year-old retired graphic designer. He described Trump as the “sheriff of the world” and said he feels like he’s living in the Wild West, where anything goes.
Alfonso, who lived through the severe economic crisis of the 1990s known as the “Special Period” following cuts in Soviet aid, said that the current situation in Cuba is worse, given the severity of the blackouts, the lack of basic goods, and the fuel shortage. “The only thing we’re missing… is for the bombs to fall on us,” he said.
The official newspaper Granma reported that peak electricity demand this Friday required 3,100 megawatts (MW), but the available energy supply is only 1,325 MW, barely 42.7 percent of the requirement.
The pressure exerted by Trump has worried Cubans, who have seen the blackouts, lasting up to 10 hours, worsen in recent weeks in the capital, along with the difficulties in buying fuel.
The lines at Havana gas stations that sell fuel in dollars stretched for several blocks yesterday, AFP observed.
University student Jorge Grosso, 23, believes it’s necessary to “negotiate and see what conditions (Trump) is offering, because ultimately, they’re suffocating us.”
For this third-year accounting student, who waited in line for “almost 24 hours” to buy gasoline, if Trump manages to cut off the country’s oil supply, “what’s coming is going to be tough, very tough.”
For the past six years, Cuba has faced a severe economic crisis, with shortages of all kinds of products and prolonged blackouts, due to the combined effects of the tightening of US sanctions, in place since 1962, the low productivity of its centrally planned economy, and the collapse of tourism.
In the last five years, Cuba’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen by 11 percent, and the government faces a severe shortage of foreign currency to guarantee basic social services, particularly the operation of its electrical grid, the maintenance of its healthcare system, and the supply of subsidized products to the population.
