An Extreme Sport During the Blackouts in Matanzas, Cuba
The streets become illegal racetracks
According to Giron newspaper of Matanzas, young people race for “pleasure, money, and just for the show.”
HAVANA TIMES – “Fast, furious, and dangerous” is how the newspaper Girón describes the illegal bikers who engage in dizzying races on the Matanzas viaduct, just a few meters above the sea. It is a kind of extreme sport that young people, both drivers and spectators, enjoy during the long nights when the power is out.
Jéssica Acevedo, a journalist for TV Yumurí and institutional communicator for the Matanzas Prosecutor’s Office, published an article this Saturday with a dual purpose: to chronicle one of these races and to warn its participants that the official press is watching them.
According to Acevedo, motorcyclists launch themselves across the viaduct in a “hysterical race,” crouching down against the vehicles to increase their speed, and they enjoy the blackout, adding to the danger. They race, she says, for “pleasure, money, and the sheer spectacle.”
Their trajectory disregards roads or pedestrian walkways, she warns. And while it is true that the pitch-black nights experienced in Matanzas—and the rest of the country—are the favorite setting, races also take place during the day. Nor do they exclusively take place on the viaduct. Acevedo claims to have witnessed similar spectacles, in recent months, “on many streets in Matanzas.”
The race is over short distances, on quiet streets, and “trying to avoid the police by all means.” Their aspiration is to race “in the purest Fast and Furious style.” The comparison isn’t entirely accurate, since in that film series, modern cars, powered by powerful fuels, travel from parking lots to rooftops, while modest and sometimes rickety Cuban motorcycles advance amidst a now-normalized fuel crisis.
Acevedo attributes a Freudian explanation to this behavior: young people from Matanzas satisfy their “need to excel” with adrenaline; they want “a good sum of money” and “to satisfy their ego.” She ignores, however, the situation: stifling—and boring—blackout nights, where even with electricity, there are no suitable entertainment options.
She adds, however, that those who ride motorcycles do so without adequate protective equipment, on vehicles that are not in perfect condition, and without considering one of the scourges that causes the most deaths in Cuba: crashes.
Due to their fragility, it is precisely the motorcycles and their drivers that are the most at risk in a collision with a larger vehicle. This is demonstrated by a crash that occurred this Wednesday in Santiago de Cuba, which resulted in the deaths of two people.
The deceased—the driver and passenger of the motorcycle—collided with a Yutong bus on the Central Highway, in the town known as Cruce de Lajas, between the municipalities of Contramaestre and Palma Soriano. The crash was reported by the Facebook group Accidentes, Buses & Camiones [Accidents, Buses & Trucks], which routinely publishes information about these types of incidents, long before the official press reports them—if at all.
The victims lived in Cruce de Lajas and another nearby town, Laguna Blanca. Their names have also been withheld, although some readers of the publication have identified them as “Ernesto, son of Sucel Ramos” and “Nolberto,” without last names.
Last March, also in Santiago de Cuba, three people died and one was injured in another crash involving two motorcycles—one electric and one combustion engine. According to reports from a Facebook profile close to the government, the collision occurred between the electric motorcycle, carrying three people, and a motorcycle with license plate P 31493.
The deceased were identified as Félix Sandi Ortiz, 39, the driver of the motorcycle; Darilen Gonce Salas, 20, of Princesa Street 359; and Leonel Bell Bravo, 22, the driver of the Jawa gasoline vehicle. Víctor Ernesto Baibir, 29, who was also riding the electric motorcycle, survived the accident.
Motorcycles are increasingly involved in traffic crashes in Cuba. The country recorded a total of 7,507 traffic crashes in 2024, according to authorities. Among the main causes of crashes on Cuban roads, are cited lack of attention to vehicle control—in 30% of cases—and failure to grant the right of way (29.9%). Rarely mentioned is the condition of the roads and almost never mentioned is power outages.
Translated by Translating Cuba.