Havana, Cuba
—
Mandy Pruna fondly recalls the influx of American tourists who visited Cuba after then-U.S. President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015.
Pruna and his bright red 1957 Chevrolet are always in demand, and he says countless visitors, including celebrities like Will Smith, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian, have paid princely sums, at least for Cuba, to take classic car tours with him.
His Chevrolet was one of three vintage American cars chosen by U.S. diplomats as the backdrop for a flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, marking the restoration of official relations between the two countries after decades of bitter hostility.
“All sectors of society have benefited from it,” Puruna said, noting that the improvement in relations was short-lived. “I saw people painting their houses and starting new businesses. To me, that was great. It was the best time for tourism in Cuba.”
Now, Cuba may be experiencing the deepest moment of economic instability the island’s residents have endured in decades, if not a lifetime.
Through military action in Venezuela and threats of tariffs on Mexico, the Trump administration is seeking to cut off oil flows to Cuba and forcefully consolidate the communist-ruled island to advance significant political and economic reforms.
Cuba appears to have no allies left willing to supply it with the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fuel it needs to revitalize its economy.
The remaining oil on the island is running out.
For people like Purna, the double loss of fuel and tourism has been devastating.
“I need gas to work, and tourists need it to work,” he said.
As the crisis drags on, life on the island of about 10 million people is slowly coming to a halt.
Many schools canceled classes and furloughed employees to conserve energy. Nearby vacant hotels have been closed and flights from Russia and Canada have also been canceled because the island lacks jet fuel needed for long-haul international flights.
Britain and Canada have warned their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Cuba.
Organizers last week canceled the annual Habanos Cigar Festival, which brings in millions of dollars in revenue. Sherritt International announced Tuesday it would suspend its nickel and cobalt mining operations in Cuba amid the fuel shortage.
Many government-run hospitals have cut back on services, and fuel shortages and idle dump trucks have caused trash to pile up across neighborhoods.
On nearly every street corner, conversations center around when power outages will occur and for how long. At night in Havana, most of the city is shrouded in near-total darkness, so the stars are often clearly visible.
The Trump administration says Cuba’s government must finally open up the island’s centralized economy before it collapses.
“No oil, no money, nothing,” US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was leading negotiations with Cuban officials.
Rubio, a Cuban-American and longtime opponent of the Cuban government, previously said the only thing he would discuss with the island’s communist leadership was when to relinquish power.
“This regime has survived almost entirely on subsidies, first from the Soviet Union and then from (former Venezuelan President) Hugo Chávez,” Rubio told the Munich Security Conference last week. “For the first time, no one was subsidizing it and the model was exposed.”
Cuba, which has lived for many years on the precipice of economic collapse, may be facing a humanitarian crisis.
Already, much of the food Cubans consume is imported following decades of disastrous agricultural policies by the Cuban government.
But this fragile lifeline is at risk as anti-Castro Cuban-American politicians call for a complete end to U.S. aid.
“It’s time to stop everything. Stop tourism, stop money transfers, stop the mechanisms that continue to fund and sustain dictatorships,” said Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from Florida.
“It’s devastating to think about a mother starving or a child in need of immediate help. No one is immune to that pain. But that is the cruel dilemma we face as exiles: resolve short-term suffering or liberate Cuba for good,” Salazar said.
Some private companies that import food from the United States have already suspended operations because they are unable to keep their products refrigerated due to continuous power outages.
Faced with worsening shortages, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called on his people to “resist creatively” and adopt a wartime mindset.
“We’re going to eat what we can produce in each place. If there’s less fuel, food won’t be able to move from one municipality to another,” Diaz-Canel said in a television appearance in January.
Some people warn that Havana’s “produce markets”, which sell the few food products produced on the island, are finding it increasingly difficult to bring fruit and vegetables into the capital from the countryside where they are grown.
“We are paying two or three times as much to replenish and keep people happy,” said Anayasi, a food vendor who was critical of the worsening economic situation. “There’s no food. The effects will be terrible. There’s nothing.”
Mandy Pruna, a classic car driver, said she and her family are considering moving to Spain. After 20 years of making a good living ferrying tourists around in his Chevrolet, he no longer sees a future in his homeland.
“Everything is uncertain at the moment. We don’t have fuel. We don’t know if we have fuel and we don’t know how we’re going to pay for it,” he said. “If you have to pay for gas in dollars, how do you get that money back if there are no tourists?”
Earlier that same morning, Mr. Pruna said he had suspended his license to work as a classic car driver.
