MIAMI, United States. — The transport crisis has forced the Cuban regime to recycle the old “camels”, which already circulate in territories such as Isla de la Juventud.
The station Radio Victory confirmed this Sunday that several of these vehicles have been rehabilitated to offer service to the population.
“Starting this Monday we will see the “camel” roll through the streets and highways of our Island again, thanks to the tenacity and commitment of the transport workers from Pinar del Río,” said the official media outlet in social networks.
Several users reacted to the publication, assuring that the return of the “camels” is indicative of the situation in which the country finds itself.
“At the rate this is going in a few months Christopher Columbus discovers us again. What an outrage!” Arahi Hutchion, a Havana resident, commented on Facebook.
A similar opinion was issued by Frank Ariel Rodríguez, a worker at the Transtur company.
“We are past the conjunctural period, don’t worry, we will return to medieval times soon.”
The “camel”, with capacity to transport up to 300 people, began to circulate in Havana in the nineties of the last century, as a result of the economic crisis that Fidel Castro euphemistically called “Special Period”.
In the capital they began to call these vehicles “camels” because of the two elevations on the roof, very similar to the humps of the famous animal.
It is estimated that in principle some 182 “camels” came to circulate in Havana, a figure that would gradually decrease over time due to the wear and tear of the equipment and the intense use to which they were subjected.
The “camels” operated on seven routes (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6 and M7) and were maintained until the mid-2000s, when they were replaced by 600 buses, mostly from the Chinese company Yutong. .
