It is tragicomic. Although the tragedy ultimately prevails over the ridiculous.
In a country plunged into an unprecedented energy crisis, with blackouts lasting over 40 hours and illicit sales of scarce fuel on the black market for thousands of pesos per liter, the “Sergio Soto” Refinery in Sancti Spíritus has released a video in which a founder of the Cuba-Petroleum Union (CUPET) calls to “give everything for the revolution.”
Luis Alberto Méndez Martínez, who has worked at CUPET since it was founded in March 1992, is the main subject of the audiovisual, in which he urges young people to keep “the revolution alive” and “the revolutionary process,” which “we have always followed.”
Not yet satisfied with this call, the veteran operator emphasizes the need to "protect this revolution" and "the strategic objective center" where he works.
Such exhortation seems to correspond with the description of the company presented by the official Cuban collaborative encyclopedia, Ecured, which states that the Sergio Soto Refinery "is the oil organization that ensures the self-sufficiency of oil and its derivatives for the territory."
"Self-sufficiency? Which products? In which territory?" any moderately informed Cuban reader might ask.
With wood stoves shamelessly displaying their soot on the balconies of Santiago de Cuba; with the President of the Republic calling to ensure that there is fuel, even if it's just wood for cooking in Havana; with areas going days, weeks, and months without receiving water, because there is no fuel to pump it, what self-sufficiency could the company possibly boast about?
"Youth must be convinced that they still have workers like me, […] and they must move forward," asserts Méndez Martínez, the fuel supervisor at the refinery, who believes that the newer employees should continue "working as we founders do."
According to Ecured, once again, CUPET is "the Cuban state organization responsible for efficiently meeting the supply of fuels and lubricants to the national market."
Satisfy? Effectively?
What will the young people who mock the rustic wood fires think about this and compare the current state of the Island with the conditions of the primitive Aboriginal community from centuries ago?
La Sergio Soto, founded in 1947, has the slogan on its Facebook page, referring to its former name: “RECA before, today FIRST AMONG FIRSTS.”
The optimism of Cuban state communication knows no bounds.
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