Cuba’s Transport in Crisis… Again!

Miguel Arias Sanchez

– Do you remember that not long ago I told you that the wage increases worried me?  – Now you can pay the “solidarity” prices charged by the collective taxi drivers, and buy cream in hard currency that helps with the temporary joint aches!   Illustration by Carlos

HAVANA TIMES – Cuba’s transport crisis today isn’t news. We’ve been dealing with this evil for years, and there are generations of Cubans that don’t know any better. In the past, it’s been a shortage of buses, spare parts, not enough drivers, etc.

This crisis has got a lot worse with fuel shortages, which is the case today, as the siege on the country with the US blockade has tightened its grip and tanker ships carrying Venezuelan oil (Venezuela being our greatest black gold supplier right now) are being fined. 

In the meantime, it’s clear that we weren’t getting ready for such a situation, a country doesn’t end up without its reserves overnight. This has all led to a series of consequences that are seriously affecting the transport of Cubans in their everyday activities: to workplaces, hospitals, schools… in a nutshell, everything a Cuban does in a day.

You just have to go out and take a look at bus stops, especially at rush hour, when people should be going (or returning) from work, when they flood the streets hoping that something comes along to take them.

The government has tried to keep the situation under control. It has made a call for solidarity, for energy-saving measures, it has placed police officers at more complicated stops to try and prevent chaos breaking out.

Many state-employed drivers are cooperating, others aren’t. They see people on the street and aren’t willing to stop and pick them up, others do stop and say they are going close by, thereby preventing a stampede of passengers. People get hot and bothered, they protest and there are lots of unpleasant situations that only go to reflect the population’s mood, tired of having to struggle.

The government says that this is a “temporary” crisis, but crises bring out the best and the worst in people. Suddenly, many private collective taxi drivers (boteros) began to charge more than the normal fare, for no apparent reason. Fuel is short, really short, but the price hasn’t gone up so ordinary citizens shouldn’t have to be paying more for their transport.

The reality is that people hope that this situation is truly temporary and that things go back to normal soon, because the precarity of the post-Soviet “Special Period” crisis of the 1990s is the first thing that comes to mind when there are shortages, and this is a memory that every Cuban wants to wipe from their brain. 

Miguel Arias

Miguel Arias Sánchez: I was born in Regla in 1949. That’s where I went to elementary and high school. Afterwards I took courses to be a teacher and did that for several years. I did my military service and as soon as I got out I studied formally to be a teacher graduating at the University of Havana. I taught in classrooms for nearly 20 years. I had the opportunity to travel and see another reality. I returned and am currently doing different self-employed activities.

One thought on “Cuba’s Transport in Crisis… Again!”

  • When is the situation with shortages of this that and practically everything else going to ease for the people of Cuba. I realise that every single shortage cannot be blamed and put at the feet of the government, I am not a supporter of the Cuban government at all, but I do now realise that just blaming the government for every single shortage is not the answer, it is time for the world governments to come together and start supporting each other and whatever surpluses they have then offer these surpluses to governments whose people can make use of them. Let us stop this non co-operation and start supporting and help each other before we wipe out each other. Please world leaders start helping each other before it is too late!

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