Havana/Critical lack of basic medications, paralysis of surgeries and suspension of the transfer of outpatients. This is, for the moment, the situation of many hospitals in Cuba in the face of the unprecedented fuel crisis, to which the regime has not even given a name this time. “Contingency or emergency, I don’t know,” he tells 14ymedio a provincial Public Health employee who requests anonymity. “Because the president talked and talked but didn’t say anything. They asked him everything and he evaded everything, and he said that other people were going to be in charge of explaining the energy issue.”
The woman refers to the appearance of Miguel Díaz-Canel this Thursday, in which the president stated that the Government has designed a plan to address the fuel shortage that has worsened since the United States intervention in Venezuela on January 3, but did not specify any specific provision, beyond voluntarist promises and the usual victimist slogans against the “imperial government” and “enemy.” “We are going to live in difficult times,” he simply outlined, betting on overcoming obstacles with one of his favorite phrases, “creative resistance.”
Díaz-Canel announced, in effect, that “a group of ministers and vice-ministers will report little by little” on the measures, approximately “in a week,” but in some institutions the restrictions are already being made known. This is what happens in Health, as the worker details to this newspaper.
“They are discharging a lot of those admitted,” he says, “and compiling all the information on available resources to see what they save.”
“All surgeries and transportation of patients from other municipalities have been canceled due to lack of oil,” he says, asking to keep the name of the hospital where he works, where the “contingency” has been in force since yesterday. “They are discharging a lot of those admitted,” he says, “and compiling all the information on available resources to see what they can save.”
The list shows the panorama. “We have diesel for 160 hours and the boilers have coverage for two days. Liquefied gas, we have for 47 days, but the incinerator has almost no burning capacity, just 1.8,” he says. The shortage of medications is also shocking: “There is no pethidine to relieve labor pain, no analgesics in general, no antihypertensives, no hydrating serum, no probes, no gauze; all of this is at zero.”
Regarding antibiotics, he continues, there is also “very low coverage”: Encomed, the Medication Marketing Company, promised them a delivery, but “they did not 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, he says, they have rice and grain for about 15 days, but “there is almost no protein left”: “there is minced meat for two days and chicken for three.” Although the employee trusts that “they will invent something, because we are not going to die by dying,” there is still uncertainty about the possible solutions.
In the absence of government communications, information transmitted by word of mouth proliferates. A health worker from a polyclinic in Ciego de Ávila refers to 14ymedio that they have been warned that only the on-call staff will be maintained and that doctors must bring “their rechargeable lamp to work.”
On social networks, they report that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments.
The harvest in Sancti Spíritus, already small, is on hold, according to an employee of the Melanio Hernández plant. “They ordered the state transportation and everything in general to stop,” says the man.
Likewise, on social networks, they report that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments.
“This was the message that the guests of the Valentin Perla Blanca hotel, in Cayo Santa María, received this morning,” he wrote this Thursday. Adelth Bonne Gamboa on networks, illustrating its publication with an image of the letter distributed by the customer service team. “Not even the employees themselves know the reason for the closure,” explained the activist, “they were simply informed this morning that the facilities would stop operating at 4:00 pm today.”
Officially, at the moment, very few organizations have published specific measures. One of them is the Provincial Directorate of Isla de la Juventud, which among almost twenty points, asks to leave “only essential administrative personnel” in the workplace and decrees the “total paralysis” of the electrical service in state buildings throughout the weekend including Friday, the closure of educational boarding schools and the “recreational areas and bars.”
In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of the territory’s investments are paralyzed,” including those of the Electricity Company, Agriculture and Fishing. 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 they were prioritizing allocating resources to actions that activate the economy.
As for the connection of the territory with the rest of the country, it remains up in the air: the statement indicates that the ferry departure “is valued” Perseverance “Once or twice a week depending on the availability of fuel and the guarantee of transportation from Batabanó to Havana.”
In Las Tunas, since this Friday the national bus departures bound for Camagüey, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, “due to the deterioration in the availability of fuel in the country.” Only one route to Havana is maintained, that of the nine at night “express”, and the alternate route to Matanzas is also paralyzed.” It will not be the only measure, reported Tiempo 21, but the next ones that see the light, “related to the national passenger transportation itself, fundamentally the railway service,” are being studied.
In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of the territory’s investments are paralyzed,” including those of the Electric Company, Agriculture and Fishing.
For its part, the University of Havana has decreed, among other resolutions, to “postpone” the activities of the international congress that would be held in just a few days – and which planned to bring together more than 1,500 delegates, 500 of them from 32 countries– and extend the “blended modality to all Higher University Technician careers and programs”, starting this Friday and for 30 days.
If you look for information about the measures in the official press, only the reporter Elsa Ramos, from Escambraydoes relevant questions: “How is the priority established for distributing the little fuel that reaches the service centers? Why is sales in dollars privileged? Why are the cards filled out and charged if there is no liquid backup? To what extent is it true that the sale of gas, when it appears, will be in dollars?”
It is not that the official who interviews, Camilo Pérez Pérez, coordinator of Government Programs and Objectives in Sancti Spíritus, responds fully to everything, but he is forced to offer some details. For example, the order to transport milk “in different thermoses” by the Dairy Company to reduce vehicle travel, or the rehabilitation of ovens in the Food Company to produce bread “with firewood.”
In Education, Pérez indicates, without detailing, “alternatives are applied” both for the transportation of students and for the preparation of food, “mainly in boilers,” where “savings can be made.”
Likewise, the official acknowledged that “at this time there is no guarantee for private carriers linked to passenger transportation, since only state cars are being prioritized due to the restrictions we have.” He did, however, rule out the feared “zero option” that is on the lips of all Cubans these weeks: “We have never stayed at zero. It has been quite a responsible job, especially for all the entities that consume and with good communication and an alert of the difficulties that we may have in each place, decisions have been made and services have been guaranteed.”
