A truck loaded with chicken overturns in Guanabacoa

A truck loaded with chicken overturned on Monday in the town of Río Piedras, in the municipality of Guanabacoa, near the intersection of Monumental and Santa María del Rosario Highway.

The incident, shared on social media by a user identified as Radimir Galán, did not result in any injuries, according to eyewitnesses, who also noted that the vehicle's cargo remained intact.

The accident involved a truck of the brand Freightliner, with license plate B092299, manufactured by Daimler Truck North America LLC, which ended up overturned on its left side, partially blocking the roadway.

In the images shared on social media, a large vehicle can be seen navigating a curve on a narrow, poorly paved road, suggesting that excessive speed, combined with the road conditions, may have contributed to the incident.

Several people and residents from the area gathered at the scene, some apparently assisting the driver in siphoning fuel from the truck's tanks.

This incident occurs in a context where imported chicken is a highly demanded product in Cuba, where food shortages have led to long lines and irregular trade of this product.

In recent years, several similar accidents have been reported, such as the overturning of a truck loaded with chicken in Las Tunas in August 2021 and another more recent one in January 2024 in the same province.

Cuba imports thousands of tons of chicken annually from the United States, with almost 170 thousand tons shipped in the first months of 2024, according to official data. According to economist Pedro Monreal, this figure is “approximately equivalent to 6,800 containers,” although “the values and tonnages are lower than those for the same period in 2023.”

The high dependence on these imports, along with distribution issues, has led to scenes of desperation, such as the enormous queues recorded in various provinces to buy a pound of chicken.

On the other hand, the informal trade has also taken advantage of the situation, with micro, small, and medium enterprises (MIPYMES) selling boxes of chicken directly from containers in the street, a phenomenon that has become common in cities like Havana, and which the Cuban regime stopped with the new regulations approved in December for MIPYMES, limiting wholesale trading.