A ten-second video posted on TikTok by the account @YaniCrepo encapsulates the depth of the crisis in Cuba with a single image: two cattle pulling an almendrón —the iconic American cars from the 1940s and 50s— down a deteriorated paved street in Las Martinas, Pinar del Río.
The recording, posted last Sunday with the description "what is seen in Cuba," garnered 64,000 views, 1,832 likes, 741 shares, and 99 comments, becoming a new viral symbol of transportation's precariousness on the island.
The scene is not an isolated incident or a quaint curiosity: it is the direct consequence of the energy collapse currently affecting Cuba.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, publicly acknowledged that the country "absolutely has no fuel, no diesel, only associated gas."
In light of that gap, transportation and agriculture have turned extensively to animal traction. The president of the Agricultural Business Group, Orlando Lorenzo Linares Morell, acknowledged that the sector is reverting to technologies "from the 19th century" due to a lack of fuel, although he clarified that "the equipment exists, but there is not enough fuel."
Cuban agriculture has returned to oxen and windmills on a widespread basis, with the planting campaign concluding April with only 70% compliance and agricultural aviation completely halted.
Rice production fell to 36% of the 2018 level, and the Quintín Bandera sugar mill in Villa Clara was unable to complete the 2025-2026 harvest due to shortages of fuel and supplies, also resorting to oxen and solar panels.
The historical context is unavoidable. In February of this year, the regime of Díaz-Canel reactivated the so-called “Zero Option”, the emergency plan designed during the Special Period of the 1990s following the disappearance of the USSR to confront a scenario of zero oil.
That plan included, among other measures, the use of animal traction, bicycles, charcoal, and food self-sufficiency: exactly what is seen today in the streets of Pinar del Río.
The image of the almendrón pulled by cattle in Las Martinas visually embodies more than three decades of regression: Cuba in 2026 is repeating the survival scenes of the 1990s, with the difference that now they go viral in seconds in front of millions of people around the world.
This is not the first time a classic car has taken center stage in a viral moment on social media. In April of this year, another one of these vehicles, adorned with symbols of freedom, moved the Cuban diaspora as it drove through the streets of the island and spread widely on TikTok.
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