A Cuban identified as @mi.yanis3 posted a video on TikTok on June 18, in which she denounces the frustrating transportation situation in Cuba, where she had been waiting for over an hour for a vehicle to return home after running errands.
The woman explains that some cars do circulate, but they do not stop or charge 1,500 pesos for the fare—about three or four dollars in the informal market—a sum that is unattainable for most Cubans.
"I'm out on the street for over an hour now trying to get home because I came to pick up some errands and things, and I must tell you that there's no transportation, or there is, but they don't stop for us, and the ones that do charge 1,500," he narrates in the video.
The Cuban woman clarifies that she does not hold the drivers responsible for the prices they charge and points directly to the regime: "We can't even blame the car drivers, you know who we have to blame."
The main cause of the crisis is pointed out as the price of fuel: "The price of gasoline right now is 3,000 pesos per liter, and it's unbelievable, sir, it's unbelievable and sad to be stranded on the street late at night."
The video was recorded precisely on the day when new restrictions from the Ministry of Transportation went into effect, the most severe since the onset of the crisis: national buses between Havana and the provincial capitals changed from daily service to only three departures a week, and trains to Santiago, Holguín, and Bayamo were reduced to just one round trip every two weeks.
The routes to Baracoa, Manzanillo, and Moa now have only one departure per week, while the Nueva Gerona-Batabanó ferry has been operating only on Saturdays since June 20.
The Ministry of Transport has also eliminated the unrestricted sale of tickets: seats are now assigned by provincial commissions based on priority criteria such as medical appointments or deaths.
The price of gasoline mentioned by the Cuban in the video corresponds to the informal market from mid-June, although by that time the actual prices were already ranging between 4,000 and 6,000 pesos per liter, according to data from the informal market collected in April and June of 2026.
That figure exceeds the average monthly salary in Cuba, which is around 3,000 pesos, making the mere act of getting around an impossible luxury for most of the population.
On May 15, 2026, the regime abandoned the fixed price of gasoline and implemented floating prices in foreign currency for fuel, further exacerbating the situation.
The collapse of transportation has structural roots: Cuba received only one of eight fuel ships expected between December 2025 and April 2026, and in January of this year, the government itself acknowledged that public transportation was only meeting 42% of its planned goals.
In February, the state entity Transportación Habana reported that "there are no services on any of the available routes" due to a fuel shortage, and in Ciego de Ávila, only two out of 135 routes were operational in March.
The Cuban woman in the video concluded her statement with a phrase that sums up the feelings of millions: "It is sad what we are living, and I am saying this not for any reason or to make something happen, but because from the bottom of my heart, I feel sadness about this situation."
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