Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show may have been unforgettable, but it wasn’t the biggest Latin American story this month. That (unhappy) distinction belongs to Cuba.

The Communist island’s state of crisis reached what may turn out to be terminal velocity after the White House moved to choke off oil shipments to the Caribbean nation. Airlines are suspending flights to Havana for lack of jet fuel. Resorts that generate scarce hard currency are shutting amid rolling blackouts. The government is resorting to extreme measures to ration dwindling supplies, further disrupting daily life on an island long accustomed to hardship.

Satellite data compiled by my Bloomberg Economics colleagues show nighttime luminosity fell 22% in January from a year earlier — and that was before the latest, most drastic measures. Cuba’s collapse has long been predicted; this time, it feels unmistakably real.

© The Japan Times