The popular comedian Mario Sardiñas, known for his character Chequera from the Cuban show "Vivir del cuento", posted a new reel on Facebook that summarizes in 25 seconds what no official report would dare to admit: in Cuba, the most in-demand product at the moment is fire extinguishers.
The video starts with the familiar sales pitch: "imported products, made in La Cuevita, plastic brooms, lazy ones, plastic aprons"... Chequera, true to his character as a sly street vendor, is rattling off his catalog with the rhythm of someone who has spent decades surviving in the informal market. Up to that point, everything seems normal—or what is considered normal in Cuba.
Then comes the snark: the electrical switches, stars of their viral reel from March, are no longer available. "Don't you have any of those switches left?" asks a supposed customer. "No, man, no. I had to get away from that, it's showbiz. Too much demand," he explains with the resignation of someone who has seen even hope run out.
And then comes the grand finale. The star product. The essential item for the Cuban in 2026: fire extinguishers. When asked what they are for now, Chequera doesn't hesitate: "What for, Pipo? To put out the fire, which is blazing!" The reel has garnered over tens of thousands of views and almost 10,000 likes, confirming that Chequera's humor remains a precise gauge of the mood on the streets of Cuba.
The joke has more layers than an onion and more truth than an official report. In Cuba, "estar en candela" means to be in serious trouble, and the country has been on fire in both a literal and figurative sense for years. Santiago de Cuba recorded at least six significant fires between February and April 2026, according to reports from early May: one destroyed the home of two families with five children, and another forced the evacuation of 12 patients from the Saturnino Lora Hospital after a failure in an air conditioning compressor.
Cuban firefighters, if that weren't enough, face their own structural crisis: power outages paralyze water pumps and hinder firefighting efforts. The national electricity deficit in April 2026 ranged from 1,630 MW to 1,945 MW, with outages affecting 55% of the national territory. In that context, a fire extinguisher is no joke: it is almost a luxury item.
The economic landscape surrounding Chequera's humor is equally bleak. The supply card is in functional collapse: warehouses in Havana were only offering rice, sugar, and split peas to thousands of assigned customers. The price of a package of chicken rose from 4,500 CUP to 4,850 CUP in a short amount of time, and approximately 36% of the population is experiencing food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.
It is no coincidence that 80% of Cubans consider the current crisis worse than the Special Period. Cuba imports between 70% and 80% of the food it consumes, and the economy continues to plummet. In this context, the character Chequera —who in March had already gone viral with a sketch offering "electric switches" and pulling out a metal cauldron with the phrase "Touch it to see how the current comes"— once again hits the nail on the head with surgical precision.
Because when the best-selling item in a country is fire extinguishers, the question isn’t what they are used for. The question is what remains to be put out and whether anyone is willing to try. "Come on, I've got one left, gentlemen," Chequera concludes. And within that final phrase lies all of Cuba.
Filed under: