Cuba: Desperation in Lines for Cooking Gas
after five months without supply
Only 199 small gas cylinders arrived in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa, and most customers left empty-handed.
By Jose Lassa / Mercedes García (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – The arrival of liquefied gas to the capital has brought anything but peace of mind. Many customers had last bought gas three months ago, but this round of sales was only for those who hadn’t been able to buy since December, that is, five months.
“There are massive lines; people are nearly coming to blows, it’s a total hell,” said a resident of Boyeros on Sunday. “I last got mine on February 14th. Who knows when my turn will come, because right now they’re giving out December’s quota. I have a neighbor who had to leave the line because she said it was unbearable… there was a huge fight,” she told 14ymedio.
In Guanabacoa, the desperation was total. Local delegates tried to organize the line in the face of a crowd that surged forward in desperation for the mere 199 gas cylinders available—clearly not enough, and most people would have to leave empty-handed. At the Fuente and Obispo sales point, chaos was the word that best described the scene.
Organizers called out the names of people who were allowed to buy and tried to prevent line-cutting. The day was marked by discomfort, arguments, shouting, and extreme heat, which some tried to shield themselves from with umbrellas while others pressed against nearby buildings for shade.
The Cuban Petroleum Co. (Cupet) had announced the start of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales in the western provinces for Saturday through all social media channels and official press outlets. The company said the process would begin on May 31 and would follow an organized daily schedule, allowing only one cylinder per customer—limited to those who had missed the February sale.
But organization has proven impossible in Havana, even though nearly half the population (over 280,000 households) receives gas service via pipelines. Those customers are supplied with natural gas from plants in Puerto Escondido, Varadero, and Boca de Jaruco—all operated by Energas, the joint venture between Canadian company Sherritt International and Cuban state-owned Cupet.
Bad luck had it that on the very same day the chaotic gas cylinder sale began, the Boca de Jaruco plant went offline due to a fault in one of Energas’s output lines. That failure was compounded by the shutdown of two other lines, impacting power generation and “worsening the situation,” according to a social media post by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which called for calm and stated that four turbines had already been restored.
Protests over the disorganization have erupted across Havana’s municipalities. Complaints have come from people who paid 10 pesos for a digital line ticket via the Ticket app that was not honored. Likewise, from those who demand priority for customers who haven’t bought gas since 2024, a policy not consistently followed, and from others who say corruption among organizers is rampant.
“I call on the manager to take charge of organizing the lines at sales points and not leave it in the hands of line-holders and corrupt delegates. I hope the police or military step in,” one customer pleaded.
The situation stands in stark contrast to the relative calm in Sancti Spíritus, where things are running smoothly thanks to effective use of the Ticket app. “Here there’ve been no long lines or chaos because everything is organized through Facebook and other networks,” said a resident of the provincial capital, where sales also began on the 31st for the physically disabled, vulnerable people, and those who hadn’t received gas since December. Sunday’s sale was reserved for those who had paid 10 pesos for a space in the virtual line. “Everyone here knows when it’s their turn. I should get mine next week because I’m number 33 on Ticket,” someone said.
Of the year’s 150 days so far, 117 had no liquefied petroleum gas available on the island, acknowledged the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, last Thursday on President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s podcast Desde la Presidencia. Both admitted that those were the days the ship carrying LPG—now being sold—had been docked without unloading because there was no money to pay for it. They said the requirement for advance payment and banking issues caused by the US embargo also complicated the process.
Those same problems, they noted, are recurring with a second ship that is “contracted and paid for,” suggesting that gas shortages will likely happen again, with all the consequences that entails for the population.
Additionally, as Diaz-Canel and De la O Levy pointed out, the lack of cooking gas increases electricity demand, raising daily power needs by 200 to 250 megawatts. But that’s not the only problem. Many people resort to buying gas on the black market, ignoring or underestimating the severe risks involved. Others are forced to cook with firewood, even going as far as burning their old furniture if they can’t afford the high price of charcoal.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
What a pathetic situation brought about by a corrupt regime that refuses to implement true reforms so that Cuba can produce value add in the global economy. Even tourism in arguably one of the most beautiful tropical paradises in the world has failed. And the regime steals the precious income earned on the broken backs of Cuban workers. Viva Cuba Libre!!
Absolutely pathetic juvenile regime. High school students could organize the country better than the corrupt imbeciles with the power and the lives of Cubans in their hands. This is by far the worst run country on earth. Yet they keep either doing things that don’t work over and over, or creating more initiatives that also fail, in an attempt to look like they know what to do. But it is painfully obvious to even children that the Castro-Fascists are pathetic dumb thieves. I had a chat with someone from Iraq, of all places, just yesterday who laughed and said he would never go to Cuba because it is, “just shit.”
A family member in Guantanamo who works on the US military base there, and not surprisingly speaks very good English characterizes the situation in Cuba these days as “rugged”. Curiously, Guantanamo seems to be suffering less than other communities in the eastern provinces. Is it because of their proximity to the Americans?
First I don’t understand why the government doesn’t have money to pay for off loading. The US has nothing to do with the national treasury of Cuba.
Second my heart goes out to all of you. It is very hard to understand why there are so many problems but very easy to have compassion for your troubles.