Cubans say that every day is a struggle to live as they face power outages, water and fuel shortages

Melanie Chantelle González Barrios, 15, has two young children and says she dreams that one day, when they grow up, they will be able to leave Cuba and escape the daily battle for survival that her family faces.

González Barrios lives in a one-bedroom house in the Havana neighborhood of Buena Vista with her 17-year-old husband, one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, six-month-old son and his grandmother.

The family keeps many bathtubs and jugs full of water because they never know when they will be hit by a power outage, which also cuts off the water.

Power outages have been common for years, but now, since US President Donald Trump embargoed oil in Cuba in the hope that the country will collapse, outages have become more frequent and longer, sometimes covering the entire country.

Officials say the power outage is hurting all sectors of Cuban society, and residents – many of whom rely on the tourism industry that has evaporated – are struggling to find basic necessities like food and water.

“I think it will be worse,” said González Barrios. “Sometimes, because of the power, we don’t get water and people go crazy.”

The national grid completely failed this past Monday for about 30 hours. In Havana, the capital, power is provided daily between neighborhoods.

Cuba – which depends on oil for more than 80 percent of its electricity generation – has been without fuel for three months after Trump-armed Mexico and Venezuela stopped sending tankers.

The tourism industry, which is a major source of income, is in a critical situation after many cruise ships and airlines stopped operating in the country due to fuel shortages. In Old Havana, many palatial hotels remain empty.

Widespread impact of fuel shortages

In the area near Central Park, the National Capitol, a number of taxi drivers who traveled in famous cars from the late 1940s and 1950s spent empty afternoons waiting for unseen fares.

Taxi driver Alfredo Hernandez, 75, owns a 1948 red Buick that his grandfather replaced. Before the oil embargo, the roughly 400 vintage cars in operation could barely keep up with the demand for tourist rides, he said.

“Tourism is now almost completely destroyed,” Hernandez said.

Taxi drivers used to receive an allowance of more than 300 liters of fuel per day; now they get 20 liters, said Hernandez.

Fuel is now very limited in Cuba, creating a black market where a liter of fuel sells for around 10 US dollars. Local traffic now flows at half its previous level, locals say.

Motorcycles – many of them electric – and bicycles can be seen outpacing cars on the streets of Havana.

This reduction in power was caused by a level of hardship that the island nation – with a population of about 10 million, has long been accustomed to the difficult conditions caused by the American economic embargo for more than sixteen years – has never endured before, according to Zunilda Barrios Nuñez, 59, the grandmother of González Barrios.

Barrios Nuñez said that this period is more difficult than the economic problems of Cuba’s “Special Period,” following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which caused the country to face food shortages and rations.

“That was a difficult time, but it’s not like today,” he said.

The fuel shortage also caused a sudden increase in food prices, making it nearly impossible for many people to pay for basic necessities, Barrios Nuñez said.

He said the price of a kilogram of chicken (less than half a kilogram) went from about $18 Cuban pesos, to about 350 pesos a pound.

Elementary school teacher, Barrios Nuñez said the cost of buying food for the family eats up his entire salary.

“You have to come up with ways to survive,” he said.

The Canadian dollar was trading around 338 pesos in Havana this week.

González Barrios does not have a job because he is still finishing school and taking care of the children. Her husband, Leonardo Acosta, works in a roadside vegetable stand in a municipality southeast of Havana. He leaves every morning at 5 am and returns home after 10 pm, said González Barrios.

On a good day he will bring in up to $2,000 pesos, while their daily food costs can reach 3,000 pesos a day, he said.

“A person can go without eating, but children can’t,” said González Barrios.

“You have to move and get even a little meat, you have to do your best. Children can’t go without eating.”

The US is ‘abusing its power’: deputy minister

Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the Cuban people are victims of American atrocities.

“The United States behaves like a corrupt country, abusing its power,” said Fernández de Cossío.

The U.S. power blockade is harming all aspects of Cuban society, including its health care and education systems, its agricultural and industrial sectors, its transportation networks, and the ability of Cuban citizens to earn a living, he said.

“This is a criminal act against the Cuban people,” said Fernández de Cossío, in a press conference on Friday.

He said the Cuban government plan is not on the negotiating table in the ongoing talks with the US

Alexander Rondón, 49, who is a football coach and the father of three children, aged seven to 18, said that people should leave politics to politicians.

“If things get better, if they don’t, we continue the struggle until it gets better,” he said.

Rondón said there are many opinions on the streets of Havana, including those who believe that Trump should come and wipe the slate clean in Cuba.

“They think like that, you can’t take that away from them,” he said. “But no, the problem must be solved between us [Cubans].”

There was an outbreak of violence during the blackout, including in the city Morón, which lives about 460 kilometers west of Havana, where people earlier this month broke into the office of the Communist Party.

People in many places also protested by beating pots and pans.

Barrios Nuñez said he doubts there will be widespread unrest.

“I find that very far from the truth,” he said.

People spend all their energy on daily survival, says Barrios Nuñez.

“Things are not going to get better,” he said.