A Cuban identified as Daudy Cuervo posted a video on Facebook, in which he shows that he paid 18,000 pesos for just three liters of gasoline in the informal market, at a rate of 6,000 pesos per liter.
In the clip, Cuervo expresses his outrage with a statement that sums up the situation: "I just paid 18,000 pesos for 3 liters of gasoline; it’s already at 6,000, and they say it will reach 10,000. It's madness, my love."
The price paid matches the highest ranges reported in the Cuban black market during March and April 2026, which range between 4,000 and 6,000 pesos per liter.
To gauge the impact, it is enough to compare that figure with the Cuban monthly minimum wage: 2,100 pesos, which has not been updated since January 2021.
The informal market has become the only means of accessing fuel for most Cubans, due to the practical impossibility of obtaining it through state channels.
The State sells gasoline through the Cimex Ticket app only in dollars, with waiting lists ranging from 7,000 to 15,000 requests per gas station and barely between 50 and 90 vehicles served per day.
The comedian Otto Ortiz reported reaching the 15,551st position on that list, estimating a wait of ten months.
The scarcity is due to a series of blows to the Cuban energy system. Venezuela, which contributed about 30% of the island's energy imports, suspended its shipments at the end of 2025. Mexico interrupted its supplies on January 9, 2026.
On February 13, a fire affected the Nico López refinery in Havana. And on January 29, Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening tariffs on any country that supplies oil to Cuba.
The only temporary relief came on March 29, when the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin unloaded 740,000 barrels in Matanzas, enough for seven to ten days of national consumption, prioritized for electricity and essential services, not for private transportation.
In that context, those who have gasoline sell it at whatever price they choose. In Santiago de Cuba, diesel reached 5,000 pesos per liter on the black market during March.
A Cuban paid 50,000 pesos for ten liters on March 26. In January, the price of a liter on the black market ranged from 700 to 1,500 pesos depending on the province: in just three months, the price multiplied by four or more.
Videos of Cubans showing what they pay for fuel have become a genre in their own right on social media, reflecting popular outrage over a crisis that has no short-term solution, as experts warn.
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