Hotels "compacted" to regroup the few tourists and deserted streets, this is what Cuba looks like without fuel

Havana/Almost empty streets, with only a few cars circulating, and hotels where only a handful of windows remain lit in the Havana night. That is the image captured by the reporters of 14ymedio after the measures announced by the Cuban Government to face the current crisis. The island’s economy, which had been plummeting for a long time, is already close to total collapse after the loss of its Venezuelan benefactor and the entry into force of an executive order from US President Donald Trump, which prevents the arrival of oil to the country.

The package of decisions, presented as a “contingency plan”, has had an immediate impact on daily life. The drastic reduction in fuel consumption has emptied the streets, limited transportation and reinforced the feeling of paralysis. The capital, traditionally the last bastion to feel the most severe cuts, now appears plunged into a gloom that the rest of the country has been enduring for years.

Many passengers who traveled to other provinces to visit their relatives have been trapped, without certainty about how or when they will be able to return home. This is the case of Amalia, a resident of Havana, who was in Sancti Spíritus, in the center of the Island. In the WhatsApp group where she was trying to get a ticket, the bus driver warned them that, if she could not fill the available seats, the trip would be cancelled. “There is no fuel in all of Santa Clara,” he wrote. “If we don’t go out today, we may not be able to go out anymore.”

One of the hardest hit sectors is tourism, for years presented as the locomotive of the economy. The regime has begun to close hotels and relocate tourists to other facilities, an unprecedented decision in the middle of high season. Deputy Prime Minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga spoke on state television about “compacting” tourism infrastructure to reduce energy consumption, but without offering clear details. In practice, sources from the sector anonymously confirmed to EFE the closure of facilities and the transfer of visitors starting this Saturday, especially in Varadero and the northern keys.

The measure directly affects foreign chains that operate on the Island, including the Spanish Meliá and Iberostar, as well as the Canadian Blue Diamond Resorts. The scene of half-empty hotels and dark hallways contrasts with the official discourse that insists on shielding tourism as a strategic sector, even at the expense of other areas of the economy.

The figures confirm that the problem is not temporary. In 2025, Cuba closed with just 1.8 million international visitors, the worst record since 2002 if the pandemic years are excluded. The hotel occupancy rate fell to 21.5% in the first half and the main source markets, Canada and Russia, also fell. The 4.7 million tourists reached in 2018, during the thaw with the United States, are very far away.

The energy crisis is the immediate trigger for this new collapse. Since mid-2024, constant breakdowns in obsolete thermoelectric plants and the lack of foreign currency to import fuel have pushed the system to the limit. Added to this, in January, was the geopolitical blow that represented the US military operation in Caracas, which cut off a vital supply for Havana, and the subsequent executive order by Donald Trump that threatens to sanction countries that sell oil to the Island.

To face this scenario, the Government has resorted to a well-known manual: fuel rationing, prioritization of teleworking, blended classes in universities and the suspension of scheduled surgeries in hospitals, a sign of the extent to which the energy crisis already reaches essential services. Added to this is an explicit appeal to Fidel Castro’s “indications” during the Special Period. His successor in power, Miguel Díaz-Canel, even rescued the concept of “zero option”, that survival plan designed for a “zero oil” scenario.

However, more than three decades later, the context is different and, in some ways, more fragile. The economy is exhausted, the productive fabric devastated and the population lacks the margins of resistance it had in the 1990s. The result is a society subjected to forced contraction, where each “temporary” measure is perceived as the prelude to something worse.

Added to this panorama is another collapse, that of the Ticket platform, used for the distribution of fuel, which can only be purchased with dollars, in Cimex service centers. The inclusion of new virtual waiting rooms caused congestion that left thousands of users without clear information or effective access to the service. Informal channels are now trying to organize the chaos, confirming that even the State’s digital solutions are succumbing to the magnitude of the crisis.

The video of the semi-dark hotels in Havana is the most faithful representation of a country that enters survival mode, where tourism shrinks, transportation disappears and the night advances on buildings that previously symbolized a luxury reserved for the privileged. Faced with the official discourse of resistance and opportunities, reality shows that the collapse is no longer only announced, but is seen and felt in every street on the Island.