Marta and Manuel, two Spaniards who arrived in Havana this Good Friday with the Air Europa flight, go through the door of the José Martí international airport and come across a dark esplanade full of people trying to show their sign with the name of some tourist. The taxi stand is empty. The lack of fuel hits even the strategic tourist sector and the couple from Madrid spend two hours waiting for a vehicle that will take them to Old Havana.
“Tourism cannot be recovered like this,” says the employee who manages the entrance. The man calls over and over again on his mobile phone potential taxi drivers to alleviate the long queue that has been forming after the arrival of the European flight. But the answer he receives is almost the same: “I have no fuel.” After about half an hour, a yellow Citroen pulls up before the line of desperate commuters. “This is my last trip because what I have left of gasoline is not enough for another one,” he says.
Several tourists speed up to get on the buses that will take them to Varadero and other resorts. “We are doing the trips to leave the clients in the hotels but we have had to cut the excursions,” explains a driver who begins to read a list of British surnames to confirm the travelers that he will transport in his vehicle. “For almost a month we have only had fuel for transfers to and from the airport,” he underlines.
“We are doing the trips to leave the clients in the hotels but we have had to cut the excursions,” explains a driver
On the other side of the street, also in the dark, the drivers of several private vehicles place the tourists’ luggage in the trunks and shout to each other the coordinates of where to find fuel. “For the Santa Catalina gas station, it’s dry, the one on Boyeros and Ayestarán doesn’t have anything either, although they told me they saw a pipe unloading an hour ago at the one on G and 25.”
The information, more valuable to fill the vehicle’s tank than the money itself, has created solidarity networks between drivers who, in addition to spreading the word about where the supply has come from, help each other in the queues at the service centers, which can last for days . “We are four taxi drivers and we take turns standing in line, the one who got it last week no longer has this one. We wouldn’t have a life if everyone had to be in this all the time,” explains a young man who rents a car from the Taxi-Cuba Company.
“The tourists who arrive do not know this and some rent a car to go to the province, then they are left stranded on the highway because they cannot fill the tank,” he warns 14ymedio driver. “At the beginning, passenger cars had priority, but if there is no gasoline, what can it matter that you have priority? If there isn’t, there isn’t, they can’t invent it.”
Marta and Manuel managed, after a long wait, to get into a vehicle heading to a private rental house in the historic center of Havana. “Can we make an excursion to the Ciénaga de Zapata tomorrow?” they inquired with the taxi driver. The payment proposal, an interesting amount of euros, would have been absolutely irresistible a few months ago, but the driver declines. “I can’t, this is the last gasoline I have left. Tomorrow I have to take care of getting more and that will take me all day or all week.”
Among the taxi drivers there is a rumor that the fuel problems will be solved on the 18th
Rumors circulate among taxi drivers that the fuel problems will be solved on the 18th. In March, the British agency Reuters announced the shipment of a shipment of oil from Venezuela that it was going to be the greatest that is remembered in a long time. the tanker Nolanflying the Panamanian flag and sanctioned by the United States, was in the Venezuelan port of San José loading 1.53 million barrels (400,000 of fuel oil and 1.13 of heavy oil) bound for Cuba.
Although the ship was due to arrive at the end of March, the shortage, visible at the island’s gas stations, makes one suspect that the supertanker has arrived late or the unloading has been slow. The position radars located the Nolan for the last time on the west coast of Africa, but that was 111 days ago and it is known that sanctioned tankers travel with their transponder turned off to hide their location. Venezuelan opposition member María Corina Machado affirmed last week that the oil tanker was in the port of Antilla, in Holguín, according to a satellite application.
But the effects of the lack of fuel are not only felt by tourists and Cubans who want to fill their tank. The blackouts are back and national television announces that a “complex” day is expected this Monday. Yesterday, Sunday, the deficit reached 368 megawatts (MW) around 8:20 p.m., coinciding with peak hours. Although the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) assures that “this weekend it managed to cover the demand”, there are not a few Cubans who have complained of more than three hours without power in different parts of the Island.
“They don’t have oil because they don’t buy it and the one they buy doesn’t pay for it. Full stop,” settles a user when reading the day’s forecast
“Last night here there was a blackout from 10:27 pm until a little more than 1 am. I couldn’t rest well, and today we face the day to day to see how we survive,” lamented a woman from Cienfuegos. “I just saw the report and during the daytime there should be no affectations, however in Remedios there is a deficit from 9 to 3 in the afternoon,” added another.
For today, the UNE already has a deficit of 200 MW during the daytime, but it is expected that 550 MW will be missing at the peak. In its statement, the electricity monopoly speaks of a shortage in distributed generation due to “breakdowns and maintenance”, correcting the information provided on television, in which it was said that the lack of availability is due to “problems” in the distribution of fuel, that hasn’t arrived yet.
“They don’t have oil because they don’t buy it and the one they buy doesn’t pay for it. Full stop,” settles a user when reading the day’s forecast.
Meanwhile, the recovery work of the Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas thermoelectric plant continues after the accident that cost the lives of two people this Friday and injured two more when they were trapped by the collapse of a 7-meter-high wall while cleaning soot from the plant’s chimney. La Guiteras is the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, but last year it spent more days out of service than producing energy.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
