Cuba's acute fuel shortages come on top of years of food insecurity, inflation and electricity blackouts
Posted on 07/05/2023 2:07:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Cuban taxi driver Jorge Lloro is reminded of his nation's historic ties to Russia every time he gets behind the wheel of his navy blue, Soviet-era Lada.
His boxy Russian-made car is one of an estimated 100,000 that were imported to the Caribbean island during the Cold War.
Over the years, the fleet of Ladas arrived in Cuba as a means around the decades-long US economic embargo on the island.
Now, amid a crippling fuel crisis and a dire economic outlook, the island's leadership has again turned to its old ally, Russia, for help.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Cuba's acute fuel shortages come on top of years of food insecurity, inflation and electricity blackouts
At this point in our embargo policy wouldn’t it be better to offer Cuba more than whatever Russia could in exchange for verifiable reforms and capitalist changes? Encourage tourism and investment? Settle the nationalization of US companies harmed by the 1959 revolution? I would like to visit Cuba in my lifetime as a free and capitalist country that straddles our SouthWest coastline. I wonder if they would accept what the Norks would not quite take from Trump?
At the height of the crisis, the queues of cars at the petrol pumps stretched for several city blocks.
Eventually, the state had to organise the hordes of waiting drivers into WhatsApp groups. A state employee would take down your contact details and issue a number. When it was eventually your turn to fill up, you'd be contacted to come to the garage.
"I'm number 426," explained Jorge as he drove us to a petrol station in Havana, having received an alert.
Another sign of things to come here.
China building an airbase in Cube as I type.
I’m surprised that a nation as great as Cuba isn’t already carbon-neutral and all citizens have EV’s.
Why don’t we just buy Cuba from Russia. We can print phony money to do it and Russia is about broke
How about let’s not be the Palestinians and “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”? Please?
Cuber needs more ‘57 Chebbys.
Nice paint job.
Reds tends to fade.
Not so much the reds in the Cuber gov’t.
Strange that Sean Penn and Danny Glover’s favorite socialist oil-rich paradise (Venezuela) is nearby and can’t deliver.
“in exchange for verifiable reforms and capitalist changes”
I think I see a small flaw in your plan... how exactly are we going to verify anything in a pariah state run by a military dictatorship that would never allow us access?
That vehicle looks lifted.
Did Ladas come with 5-lug wheels/axles?
Russia isn’t as broke as us.
Cuba doesn’t want the embargo to end.
They use it as their excuse for their failing economy.
Exchange for cannon fodder in the Ukraine!
Do you realize you have posted what will be the end of Communist Cuba and the beginning of a new friend and capitalist ally just off Florida?
Why not settle the Ukraine war in part by including buying Cuba from Russia and forgiving some of the ChiComs Tsarist gold security debt they inherited after their revolution, to compensate for anything Cuber owes them?
I am a dreamer and I dream big; no low hanging fruit targets for me!
President Trump could broker that deal. And he could bring North Korea out of its shell as well.
President Trump should make them an offer they cannot refuse.
Most of the people living in Cuban today were not alive in 1959.
They are victims of the regime—and the embargo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.