High prices, fleeing tourists: the coup de grace for Cuba’s economy

The highway is virtually deserted. The soaring price of black-market gasoline is one of the most common topics in our conversations with Cubans.

“Did you manage to find something to eat?” The WhatsApp notification lights up my smartphone screen on a restaurant table in Old Havana, right next to a plate of lobster with salad, fried plantains, rice and black beans. On January 29, three days before we left for Cuba, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on any country supplying the island with oil. This forced Mexico to suspend exports, as Venezuela did before it. These days, Cuba – out of fuel for electricity, transportation and essential services – is at the center of international media attention.

So we find ourselves repeatedly explaining to family and friends that there is no shortage of food in the restaurants, and you can find almost anything in the small private shops – the Mipymes (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) authorized by the government after the pandemic crisis. The problem is the prices. They are affordable for two people carrying euros, but prohibitive for Cubans who lack access to dollars from expat relatives or tourist businesses. For locals, the subsidized food from government bodegas is now entirely insufficient to make it to the end of the month.

After the first few days of our trip, we realize that the blackouts will not be a problem for us either. “How did you know there's no electricity?” asks the owner of our casa particular in the Viñales Valley – a region famous for its tobacco plantations and mogotes (rounded limestone hills) – worried that this meant his solar panels were failing. “The phone network is down,” we reply. He sighs, both relieved and resigned: “The blackouts started three years ago, but today they last 12 or 14 hours at a stretch. Almost all the restaurants, hotels and tourist rentals have installed private generators to try and revitalize a tourism industry that has never recovered since the pandemic [compounded by the harsh sanctions of Trump's first term]. But I don't know what will happen now that gas is so hard to find.”

At night, even........

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