HAVANA, CUBA.-When during the so-called “energy revolution” kerosene for domestic use was replaced by liquefied gas (a 10 kg cylinder per core), the homes benefiting from the exchange (namely 1,700,000 in total) were initially considered lucky. The replacement meant leaving behind the inconveniences and dangers associated with using bright light for cooking. Or at least that’s what we hoped
However, although in the beginning there was some stability in distribution, the service began to decline starting in 2013. The cause? Supposedly the lack of cylinders. Despite this, in 2015 liquefied gas began to be sold freely. Marketing was carried out by contract, according to which the client not only had to pay the price of the container, but also the price of the regulator and the hose.
This measure benefited some newly created centers, as well as those households that only had one cylinder, and many others that did not have the household appliances sold by the State during that campaign, for which spare parts were rarely found. Added to this is that the perpetual blackouts frequently prevented (and still prevent) the use of appliances for cooking food. However, these contracts were suspended in 2019, while the fuel ration suffered a decrease, expressed in the lengthening of the purchasing cycle. And although the difference was apparently “only” 2 or 3 days, the new deadlines exacerbated the shortage of a quota that was already insufficient.
To add more precariousness to our situation, in 2021, with the beginning of the “economic reorganization” (when “subsidies” and “gratuities” were supposedly eliminated), the Cuban government raised the price of liquefied gas to 180 pesos. And not content with this, in the current year the leaders announced, under the same premise, the implementation of a new price, this time of 225 pesos, which would come into force as of March 1. Fortunately, the ominous plan has not come true to date, although we do not know why. It certainly will not be out of consideration for the people. See, if not, the lackadaisical words of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, in this regard: “This is a product that is subsidized, and that is the fundamental objective sought with the price increase. Which is nothing either… it’s 45 pesos.”
Prices aside, on October 31 of the current year, the official media Havana Tribunein its digital version, published a note from the Liquefied Gas Company announcing that as of Monday, November 4, the supply of that fuel in the provinces of Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque (precisely the most affected by the passage of Hurricane Rafael).
It is worth noting that the general director of the Company, Iván Agustín Lora Alfredo, apologized to consumers. However, it failed to inform when the service would resume, so speculation has not been long in coming, and popular opinion claims that it will not be before December. Thus, the situation is painted gray with black stitches, especially if we take into account that the leaders involved have not applied alternative measures to minimize the impact of the problem (such as the sale of another fuel, for example coal, as has been done in Santiago de Cuba).
In the aforementioned text, the agency attributed this interruption to a delay in downloading due to “complications in the payment system”, since “the previously available credit was withdrawn.” According to the note, these would be “other consequences of the economic and financial embargo that the United States maintains on Cuba.” In case the kind reader is not familiar with the puns of artificial dialectic, we translate: “They did not deliver the goods to us because we did not pay; They used to trust us but not anymore. But the fault is not ours for being poorly paid, but rather the evil neighbor to the north, who hates us.”
