Daily life for Cubans grows more dire as oil embargo continues

HAVANA — Whenever they have power in their house, even if it’s 2 a.m., Erisander Sánchez and his wife rush to cook, do laundry and charge their cell phones.

These periods of electricity last two to five hours, so sometimes the rice ends up half-cooked and the beans still hard.

“Beyond the physical exhaustion, it is the psychological exhaustion that weighs us down,” said Sánchez, 33. “It’s the uncertainty of not knowing when we will have power… we can’t plan anything.”

They cannot store food in the refrigerator because it deteriorates. And it’s not easy to find food he can afford.

Sánchez works in construction and does not have a stable job. He can’t afford milk for his 5- and 10-year-old children, so he buys yogurt from someone who makes it at home. He often buys food from convenience stores that people set up in their homes.

The lack of electricity makes even the most basic comforts unavailable. “Sometimes you just want a fan to get some fresh air and keep the mosquitoes away,” he said.

It’s a glimpse into the lives of many in Cuba. As the United States and the communist-led country argue to decide the island’s fate, millions of ordinary Cubans, caught in the middle, struggle every day to get by. A years-long economic crisis has been exacerbated since the Trump administration blocked oil shipments to Cuba. Fuel is very difficult to find. It is available in small quantities for dollars, a currency not everyone has access to. Inflation is high. Food and medicine are scarce or unaffordable. Simple tasks like cooking or showering are tedious.

The Cuban government did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Cuba’s deputy prime minister told NBC News on Monday that the government will allow the Cuban diaspora to invest and own businesses on the island in an effort to open the economy. At the same time, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the conversations with the US government and warned that “these are processes that are taking place with great discretion, they are long processes.”

As for daily life in Havana, few cars are visible on the streets. Buses do not run most of the day. They go out around 6 a.m., when people go to work, and don’t resume their activities until around 4 p.m., when people go home. Taxi prices are out of reach for most. Three-wheeled scooters with passenger seats are often used as taxis, but they can also be difficult to find when not charged during extended power outages.

Huge piles of waste containing rotten food are piling up in residential areas as fuel shortages have crippled waste collection services. It is not uncommon to see people rummaging through trash cans. The waste management crisis poses serious health risks. Last year, an outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases affected a third of the population.

Although displays of dissent are still unusual in Cuba, growing frustration has led to sporadic nightly demonstrations, with people banging pots and pans in the streets and setting fire to piles of trash. A group of protesters in the small central town of Morón broke into the Communist Party headquarters over the weekend, according to Reuters. Videos posted on social media showed people throwing stones at the building. They also threw furniture and set it on fire. Five people were arrested.

The economic crisis is not new. The island relied on subsidies shortly after the 1959 revolution, and the United States has maintained an economic embargo since the early 1960s. First, the Soviet Union sent everything from fuel to food and cars. A generation of Cubans grew up watching Soviet cartoons. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba’s economy collapsed, shrinking by about 35 percent.

In neighboring Venezuela, the coming to power of President Hugo Chávez, a man of the left, in 1999, allowed the resumption of oil and aid flows. The economy improved, but never reached previous levels. Power outages, as well as shortages of food and medicine, became commonplace, even as tourism peaked after President Barack Obama’s détente with the Cuban government.

Then, as Venezuela entered an economic recession in 2014, oil and aid supplies slowly dwindled. Power outages continued and food became scarce.

By 2020, President Donald Trump had canceled much of Obama’s opening and the coronavirus pandemic had crippled the island’s vital tourism industry. When Trump launched an oil blockade in January, people were already facing outages that lasted more than 12 hours in Havana and longer in other provinces.

Now it’s worse.

Shortages that “threaten people’s lives”

“Cuba has had significant material shortages for many years…and now those shortages are being exacerbated by the oil embargo,” said Ricardo Torres, an economist and researcher at American University. “Shortages have reached levels that threaten people’s lives. Life now revolves around when there is electricity.”

Outside the capital, the situation is worse. In Matanzas, a province about an hour east of Havana, Ricardo Socorro says he typically goes up to 30 hours without power.

Socorro, 61, works nights as a guard in a private sector store. He is in remission from bladder cancer and lives with his 84-year-old mother.

Due to prolonged power outages, he often spends a good part of his salary on charcoal for cooking. He eats two meals a day: one in the morning and the other at 3 p.m. He eats whatever he can afford or whatever is available that day. Meat is generally too expensive for one’s budget.

“My nutrition is not high quality. It’s very difficult to feed ourselves with the amino acids and calories we need,” he said. “Even beans are so expensive.”

“Today I ate cornmeal for breakfast that I made the day before, and for dinner I ate congri,” a Cuban side dish made with rice and beans, he said. “Of course, I can only use powdered seasonings. I can’t buy onions and garlic.”

Socorro considers himself lucky. He earns about 10,500 Cuban pesos (about $20) a month in the private sector, several dollars more than the state salary. “This is enough for me to eat for 10 days. Without the help of an aunt in the United States, we would have already died,” he said.

“I can’t buy clothes or repair things around the house with the money I earn. It’s all about eating,” he said. “Everything I have is second hand, even my cell phone. It’s strictly for eating for 10 days, and with the help I get, I do the rest.”

Her house also goes days without running water. When there is water, he fills buckets and pours them into tanks in his garden to use on days when the taps run dry. To bathe, he heats water and uses a cup. Once the tanks run out of water, he walks 10 blocks to a friend’s house, where he can fill buckets with water.

“It’s really tormenting,” Socorro said.

​​Carmen Sesín reported from Miami and Orlando Matos from Havana.