The sale of fuel in the Villa Clara service centers has been regulated to 30 liters of gasoline for each car, according to information from the Coordinator of Programs and Objectives of the Government, Yudit Hernández Carrazana, to the local radio station CMHW. The measure comes into force immediately and affects all service centers in the province.
The decision to ration the product has been taken “before the current crisis with the existence of fuel.” The so-called “scooters” [triciclos o motocicletas con zonas de carga o para pasajeros] They will only be able to buy 20 liters, while motorcycles will have to settle for 10, the official said.
Although Hernández does not clarify if there is a period of time to buy fuel again once the regulated amount has been purchased, a driver from Villa Clara, who has a vehicle that he uses as a collective taxi, has confirmed to 14ymedio that “the lines at the gas stations are so long that no one can buy more than once in a week.”
“I would have to stop working and dedicate myself to standing in line to buy the gasoline I need to move the passengers, but if I do that then I’d better hand over the license as Botero because I’m not going to have time to take care of transporting the clients”, he says ironically.
“The only thing that is missing is that they ration the air that is breathed, total and everything else is either missing or we only have a little bit”
In addition, the official insisted that “the extraction of fuel by containers is prohibited, except in exceptional cases authorized by local governments, which would also allocate up to 5 liters of gasoline to the owners of power plants.”
This ban has also fueled discontent among customers who use gasoline for other activities. “And if I have to paint and I need a little bit of gasoline, will I be forced to go ask the local government for permission too?” asked a netizen on the CMHW Facebook page.
“The only thing that is missing is that they ration the air that we breathe, everything else is either missing or we only have a little,” ironized another commentator who added her intention to buy “a horse to be able to get to work because this is going to shoot up the prices of boatmen“.
“And why do they spend gasoline then doing electoral campaigns if all the deputies to Parliament are already elected?” criticized another reader.
Regulations on the amount of fuel to buy have been constant in recent years, but the authorities have justified the measure not as a consequence of a fuel deficit in the country, but as part of the logistics assurance for its distribution.
This week, the long lines to buy gasoline were several blocks long from the few service centers in Havana that were selling the product. Although the authorities of the capital have not yet announced any restrictive measures, at the gas station on the corner of Infanta and San Rafael streets in the Cuban capital, this newspaper verified that dozens of drivers had been there since dawn to get some fuel. .
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