A Cuban resident abroad returned for a visit to Cuba this Monday, and what he found left him speechless: the Nacional Highway between Sancti Spíritus and Santa Clara, one of the country's most important logistical arteries, was practically deserted. In an hour and a half of travel, he saw only two or three vehicles on the entire horizon.
The man, identified on TikTok as @yusmani77 (CompanioniTax&Emigration), posted a testimonial video yesterday, recounting in the first person what he experienced while traveling that route. "Look, even on the horizon everything looked clear; I think there were only two or three cars on the entire road, no more than that. It's very sad what is happening," he said in the video.
What it describes is not an isolated anecdote: it is the starkest image of the fuel crisis that has paralyzed Cuba since late 2025. The National Highway is the backbone of transportation for food, goods, and people to the eastern provinces. Seeing it empty is akin to witnessing the country come to a standstill.
"The supply chain coming from Havana, which carries all the food to Santiago de Cuba, as well as all the packages and aid that people send from abroad, is practically at a standstill," warned the TikToker.
The impact on her own family is illustrated with specific numbers: her mother, who lives in Sancti Spíritus, needed 100 dollars a month to feed two people. Now she needs double that, about 200 dollars a month, just to cover basic food.
This is compounded by delays in the packages sent by the diaspora from the United States. Correos de Cuba publicly acknowledged that the diesel deficit limits international package deliveries, resulting in delays of up to four months. Medicines sent from Italy in November 2025 had still not arrived in Ciego de Ávila by March 2026. Cubamax suspended home deliveries on the island.
The collapse of transportation has structural causes. Venezuela, which supplied between 26,500 and 30,000 barrels per day to Cuba —a third of its energy needs—, ceased sending crude oil after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026. Mexico suspended its shipments on January 29 due to fears of sanctions from Washington. The result: closed gas stations, extreme rationing, and a black market where the price of gasoline reached 8 dollars per liter in the informal market, compared to an average state salary of about 4,000 to 5,000 pesos per month.
In Sancti Spíritus, since February 9, passengers have been stranded at the bus terminal unable to travel to the eastern provinces. In Ciego de Ávila, only 2 out of 14 bus routes were operational in March. The costs of interprovincial transport increased by over 75%.
The oil expert Jorge Piñón from the University of Texas warned that Cuba is approaching a "zero hour" if new supplies do not arrive in the coming weeks. On February 25, the United States authorized licenses for private sales of Venezuelan crude to Cuba, but the situation remains critical.
"Who have been the most affected in this story? It is not the government. The ones who are suffering the most, who are experiencing this type of situation the most, is the people,” concluded @yusmani77 in his video."
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