Havana, Cuba – The energy crisis is worsening in Havana: blackouts and lines to refuel exceed 10 hours, in a context marked by the United States' announcement to impose tariffs on countries that trade oil with Cuba. Faced with a possible aggravation, the response of Cubans, far from chaos, remains within an already historical normality: adaptation, humor and solidarity. Delivery from Havana.

First modification: 02/05/2026 - 15:32

Hair salons represent a social microcosm where movement does not stop: all types of people come and go.

With the same frequency, the light comes and goes at Luis' premises in the municipality of Playa, the largest in Havana.

"In the past, when there was a blackout, I would close up and go home. Now I don't get angry anymore, I have an automatic rechargeable shaver," says Luis while he shaves a client, sharpening his vision, between the chiaroscuro that is formed by the natural light that radiates from the windows.

In the month of January, blackouts have increased in frequency, reaching more than 10 hours in the capital, an unusual extreme. But Cubans, like Luis, seem to have a synchronized ability to adapt to the decline in living conditions.

On January 29, Donald Trump signed an executive order to apply tariffs to all countries that trade oil with Cuba, but on the streets, normality continues: the parks are full of children playing sports; pre-revolutionary cars transport passengers; and couples sit on the Malecón to find a moment of intimacy.

To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies.

An extension on your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site.

Within that everyday Cuban landscape, the possibility of a humanitarian aggravation is always on the horizon.

It is now a way of life: a decades-old custom for an island in constant tension with the neighboring country, which has applied an economic embargo for more than 60 years, in addition to multiple sanctions.

Resolve in the face of scarcity

In the midst of this ability to adapt and overcome crises, conversations revolve around the material situation, with great room for the exchange of advice.

In the same municipality of Playa, in a private store - known on the island as Mipymes and legalized since 2021 - the shop assistants talk about the need to buy charcoal for cooking when there is a blackout and the electric stoves are unusable.

While they talk, they look at the door: a group of children has just entered the adjacent property, uninhabited and full of weeds and trees. They are looking for firewood, accompanied by the teacher, in a sign that decisive empiricism begins from childhood.

Read alsoCuba, on the verge of a humanitarian “collapse”, seeks options as the energy crisis worsens

Beyond specific scenes, the biggest alteration in recent days is experienced at the gas stations in Havana. In the central neighborhood of Vedado, in Cupet de Zapata, there is an extensive line of cars that occupy the side of several blocks, surrounding the iconic Colón cemetery.

"We are bad, very bad. It's getting worse. I don't even know how I'm solving it," says Jorge, a self-employed person who had to wait 12 hours in line to fill his car with diesel. “It is better to come at night, because otherwise you lose the day,” he says.

This is the panorama at gas stations that operate with foreign currency, at $1.29 per liter; In the ones subsidized by the State, practically no fuel is entering and the cones are prostrate in front of the pumps.

Fran, a courier who drives a hybrid electric-diesel tricycle, confirms the difficulties: “In currency it is complicated and on the street they are charging more than 2 dollars per gallon.”

“The street” is the creative way that the rich Cuban lexicon has to define the parallel market.

Venezuelan crude oil no longer arrives

Cuba produces 40,000 barrels of oil of the 110,000 it needs. These, to a greater extent, are destined for thermoelectric plants, used mainly for electricity generation.

Transportation, as well as water supply or production, require the importation of diesel.

With the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela on January 3, Cuba has not received a shipment again from what was its main energy partner for the last 25 years.

Mexico, with the threat of US tariffs, has also ended up giving up on its exports, like other partners that shipped to a lesser extent.

Read alsoMexico suspends oil shipments to Cuba after record exports and tensions with Trump

Therefore, in this context, blackouts and fuel shortages have worsened, for a country that has also seen tourism decrease to less than two million visitors in 2025, exemplifying the drop in foreign currency earnings.

But in Cuba, life goes on. These are events that in developed countries would generate a greater state of alarm and chaos: a good example was the blackout in Spain on April 28, 2025.

Cubans laughed at the desperate reactions that came from there: humor emerges as a lifeline for survival in the midst of the crisis.

Also solidarity, with neighborhood networks of mutual aid, which allow the exceptional to be experienced as normal.

In the peripheral neighborhood of Santa Fe, some ladies walk slowly with their cloth bag, they go towards the agro, one of the stores dedicated to the sale of vegetables and fruits.

Read alsoCuba, under the sights of Trump and Rubio: the context behind Washington's ambitions

They talk out loud about the situation: “We are going to have to get used to cooking without light, because what is coming…” says the tallest one, before being answered by the neighbor who is holding her arm: “We have to cook at night,” she resolves, without desperation, only with the realism of a population accustomed to living between geopolitical tensions, sanctions and material scarcity.

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.