"I have gold in my hands": Cuban mother poses with a bottle of oil and captures the crisis that the island is experiencing

A Cuban mother posed smiling with a bottle of oil in her hands and used humor to depict how a basic product has become a sort of luxury due to the scarcity and uncontrolled rise in prices on the island.

The young woman, identified on Facebook as Yenia Cubanita Mayea, shared the photograph this Monday and claimed that the image should be "saved for history."

I have gold in my hands, she wrote in the post.

This is for two months or more, she added with a laugh, before asking who else was in the same situation.

Your comment reflects the strategies of many Cuban families to stretch a product that is essential for cooking but has become unaffordable in Cuba.

The escalation accelerated after the Cuban regime eliminated retail price caps in June for five imported products, including edible oils, through Resolution 150/2026.

The decision nullified the limit of 990 pesos per liter set in 2024.

The government justified the change after acknowledging that the controls had failed to contain inflation and that, in some cases, they led to the disappearance of products and their transfer to the informal market, and it was then that prices began to rise rapidly.

The liter of oil reached 2,500 pesos in Havana and exceeded 3,000 in other provinces. In Sancti Spíritus, it increased from 2,000 to 3,000 pesos in just 24 hours, according to reports spread on social media.

The situation continued to deteriorate over the following weeks. By early August, the price of oil had reached 4,000 pesos per liter, while some Cubans claimed it was being sold for up to 5,000 pesos in certain areas.

In light of the increase, municipal administrations once again resorted to the controls that the government itself had questioned weeks earlier.

Moa and Banes, in Holguín, set the price of oil at 2,200 pesos, although they assured that this was not a new ceiling.

In this context, humor has become a means to express the impact of the crisis.

Just as Yenia Cubanita Mayea flaunted her "fortune," another Cuban kept a bottle of oil inside a safe and accompanied the scene with the phrase "Fight for your dreams."