The current crisis in transportation affecting the province of Santiago de Cuba has generated a constant tension between private transporters and the local government, highlighting the regime's inability to solve one of the most persistent problems facing the population.
An article published on YouTube last Sunday by the official channel Tele Turquino highlights the contradictions in the sector: on the one hand, private transporters claim that if they charge the agreed fare, they do not make a profit; while, on the other hand, the regime asserts that they can lower the price because they supply them with fuel.
A private transporter explained that they try to stick to the established fare, but often end up charging more. In this regard, they stated: "If we charge the full amount set by the government, we don't make any profit."
He cited the stretch between the cities of Santiago de Cuba and Contramaestre as an example, where the established price is 25 to 50 pesos. However, they are forced to charge between 150 and 200 pesos. "That's the reality," he pointed out.
An official from the Contramaestre municipality assured the official channel that the price of the fare that private sector should charge is "agreed upon," arguing that they are supplied with fuel daily.
However, neither the representative of the regime nor the commissioned journalistic report explain that the poor state of the roads causes a need for more frequent maintenance of transportation vehicles.
Conveniently, they also do not address the price they must pay to the mechanics (who are also private) for the repairs, nor mention the cost of each part they must replace, which are mostly imported and acquired in MLC or USD.
Likewise, the journalistic report evidenced that the regime has not resolved one of the oldest demands of the population of Contramaestre: to reinforce transportation during peak hours, which coincide with the moments of the day when people are heading to their schools and workplaces, or returning to their homes.
In addition, he boasted about great solutions that are part of a strategy of the regime, such as a motorcar that travels twice a week to Santiago de Cuba from Contramaestre, while the rest of the days it covers the route to Dos Ríos, in Palma Soriano.
The official admitted that in the towns located between Contramaestre and Dos Ríos, there is no other way to get there, which shows that private transporters make up for the inefficiencies of the Cuban regime in terms of people's mobility.
Finally, the news report also praised the government's management and highlighted as another achievement the implementation of two daily bus trips to Santiago de Cuba, one of which is intended for people with medical appointments at a hospital in the main city.
In this sense, a bus terminal worker explained that the procedure establishes that Public Health must send a list of those patients who need to travel to Santiago de Cuba, which exemplifies the bureaucratic solutions of the Cuban regime to problems.
Recently, the government of Santiago de Cuba took another desperate measure in response to the transportation crisis: forcing drivers from state-owned companies to transport the population during peak demand times.
Noralquis Guerra Guevara, director of the Business Unit Terminals and Alternative Means of Santiago de Cuba, reported that there are 110 units in the territory participating in "solidarity transportation" with their vehicles, as reported by the official newspaper Sierra Maestra.
However, the management warned that out of the total number of entities that could alleviate the crisis with their vehicles, "3% have not joined this activity due to a deficit in the available fleet of vehicles," another irrefutable sign of the precariousness of transportation in the province.
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