A troubadour from Ranchuelo, a municipality in Villa Clara, turned the oil crisis in Cuba into a décima that has already surpassed one million views.
Yordan Quintero, known on social media as El Yayito Ranchuelero, denounced in verse and with rhythm that a liter of oil reached a cost of 3,500 Cuban pesos in his town, and the video, posted by the Facebook page D' Canturía, accumulated more than 1.1 million views, 51,372 likes, and 1,527 comments.
The central verse of the song leaves no room for doubt: "The price skyrocketed, and I can't control myself; a liter of oil alone cost 3,500. I don't know who came up with such madness in excess, those 3,500... if we do the math correctly, that would give us enough for 70 liters at 50 pesos."
The calculation made by the artist abruptly summarizes the extent of the collapse: what previously sufficed for seventy liters now barely covers one.
The price surge that inspired the composition has a clear turning point: Resolution 150/2026 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, published on June 20, 2026, which eliminated the national caps on imported edible oils and repealed the previous limit of 990 pesos per liter.
Since then, the price has continued to rise: from about 1,500 pesos in April, it went up to 2,000 in June, then to 2,500 in Havana in July, and reached between 4,000 and 5,000 pesos in some areas during August.
In Sancti Spíritus, the price of a liter jumped from 2,000 to 3,000 pesos in less than 24 hours.
In response to the escalation, several municipal governments reacted by setting local price caps with varying values: Villa Clara established a maximum of 2,500 pesos on August 8, Guantánamo at 2,200 pesos on August 5, and Pinar del Río at 2,150 pesos on Tuesday, the lowest price among the territories that implemented controls.
The politics are openly contradictory: the regime liberalized prices in June, and less than two months later, the municipalities imposed price ceilings again, each with a different figure.
Economist Pedro Monreal harshly summed up the situation: "176 measures and only one achievement: to show that they have learned nothing."
The Cuban government also acknowledged that it has not distributed oil through the supply booklet at any point in 2026, leaving the population completely vulnerable to prices in the informal market.
The décima from Yayito Ranchuelero adds to a wave of viral content that uses humor to depict the crisis.
A young man known as El Burla stored his bottle of oil in a safe to illustrate the value that the product has acquired.
In 2020, the official price of refined soybean oil was 48.75 pesos per liter in state-owned establishments.
Today, that same liter can cost more than the monthly minimum pension for thousands of Cubans, set at 4,000 pesos, which is equivalent to less than eight dollars.
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