A Cuban resident in Europe expressed her frustration in a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday, where she detailed the reality her family faces on the island: 20 hours of daily blackouts, three months without domestic gas, and the inability to send them money from Europe.
The author, identified as @karolina33besties, recounts that in Havana, electricity has become "a lost cause": four hours of power a day, with no fixed schedule, making it impossible for families to even plan their cooking.
Additionally, in their municipality, they have been without gas supply for three months. "At least in the municipality where I live, it's been 3 months without gas, so everyone is cooking with charcoal," she reports. The makeshift alternative—stoves built with bricks and homemade structures—does not allow for the easy preparation of the basic Cuban food of rice and beans.
"Cooking with charcoal in Cuba is crazy; it's crazy because just imagine making rice, beans, the typical Cuban food with charcoal," he points out in the video.
Before the gas ran out, the woman paid 50 euros for a canister in the informal market. This time she managed to solve her father's situation through a digital delivery platform: a 10 kg cylinder for 25 euros plus six for shipping, on the condition that she returns the empty container. "With €31, I was able to buy gas for my dad, which will arrive today," she explains. But she acknowledges that not everyone has that option: "Unfortunately, there are people who don't have this opportunity and have to struggle with charcoal. And it's not easy, it's not easy; it breaks your heart."
What frustrates her the most is the contradiction between the scarcity on the streets and the abundance on the sales platforms for the diaspora. "When you go to the places to buy food, gas, and appliances—all to send to Cuba—everything is available, and in less than two days the food arrives at your home. How can it be that there's everything there, yet there's nothing out on the streets?" she asks.
To this paradox is added another blow: the PostePay, the service that many Cubans in Italy and other European countries used to deposit money into MLC cards, has ceased to function. This closure is part of the exit of Visa and Mastercard from operations via FINCIMEX, effective from June 6, 2026, which cut off the main channel of remittances for thousands of European emigrants.
"I really don't know right now how to send money to Cuba? I don't know, I don't know. How do you send it? Does anyone have any information on how I can send money to Cuba? Because PostePay doesn't work anymore," she asks at the end of the video, without getting a response.
The testimony comes at the worst energy moment in Cuba's history. The electricity deficit reached a record of 2,208 MW on June 26, 2026, with a projected availability of only 1,065 MW against a demand of 3,200 MW. Moreover, Cuba has gone four consecutive months without receiving Venezuelan oil, with 106 distributed generation plants shut down and 890 MW out of service.
"There is nothing for the population, there is no gas, there is no food, there is nothing," the Cuban summarizes. "With €100, €150 you buy absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. Prices are through the roof. What a lack of respect."
Filed under: