Cuba and the oil embargo, so the island is making ready for the worst | EUROtoday

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In Havana, silence has turn into an financial indicator. And the pictures that arrive from the bus stops, the place the automobiles virtually now not cross, are probably the most eloquent signal of how the oil embargo pushed by Donald Trump is shutting down the island.

Those who’ve a automotive with a full tank can get pleasure from their journeys. The distributors now not ship. The others are already on foot. The gasoline disaster is rewriting the every day routine and, on the identical time, the vacationer narrative of the island, particularly that of the seashores and resorts that had been supposed to usher in laborious forex, whereas the nation struggles to maintain the lights on.

Since final Friday, Matteo Saccani, an Italian espresso entrepreneur who’s at present in Havana, tells us, an emergency plan to restrict gasoline and power has come into drive. «They have closed all the faculties, as much as the college, and are doing distance studying. Many public places of work work three days per week. The firms have been requested to mix manufacturing, decreasing the times of exercise.” On the ground, he adds, the most visible consequence is transport: “They have slowed down, canceled virtually every thing that’s public transport within the nation and for the second they’ve suspended the distribution of diesel and petrol at petrol stations.”

Images from Havana

The heart of the crisis, in these hours, has reached the airlines: the Cuban government has warned the companies that jet fuel will not be available for international flights in a window from 10 February to 11 March. It is a technical step that translates into an immediate effect on the tourist season: Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat have suspended flights, and carriers are organizing repatriations and operational solutions such as boarding with more fuel or technical stops in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic. A situation that Saccani confirms: «Yes, we understand that the airlines have planned a stopover in countries in the area, mainly in Santo Domingo, to fill up. I have a plane to return to Italy in the next few hours: the company brought my flight forward a little because they need time for the technical stopover, but for now the flight is confirmed.”

This is a element that explains the part nicely: the island, for now, stays linked, however at the price of an extended tour and a logistical vulnerability that may be seen and paid for.