A content creator residing in Manatí, Las Tunas, published a video this Friday in which she ironically and frustratingly dismantles the chain of energy promises made by the Cuban regime, while cooking with charcoal due to the lack of electricity and liquefied gas.
Through her Facebook profile, Lili Romero shared a recording lasting one minute, in which she reviewed the failure of each official solution; first the so-called "energy revolution" with its electric stoves, then liquefied gas, and finally the forced return to coal, a fuel that she describes as unaffordable for any Cuban household.
"These were just another one of those little battles that ended up being pointless. They changed everything with the energy revolution, all this electrical cooking thing that was supposedly meant to make life easier. But well, that didn't work out like so many other things that don’t work," Romero stated in the video.
The tunera also questioned the failed liquefied gas program, which promised to reach people even through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
"It didn't work either. And then we had to die here in this cursed coal, which is now lifeless because we spent two thousand pesos on coal for people who are retired, and for those who are not retired, it's just outrageous," he lamented.
The comments on the video reflected widespread frustration. "All the achievements have gone down the drain; the greatest accomplishment nowadays is that everything is malfunctioning at the same time," wrote a user.
Another summed up the situation in a few words: "Nothing works. Nothing has worked before. And the worst part: nothing is going to work. Everything is getting worse each day."
A third person added: "When you buy charcoal, you don't have money for food, it's a disaster."
Romero concluded his video with an image that encapsulates the setbacks experienced by the population: "With this, I want to tell you that there is no remedy for anything here anymore. At the rate we're going, we will be in a war of independence."
The outpouring from Romero reflects a reality that impacts millions of Cubans. Since January of this year, the state-owned company Cupet indefinitely suspended the distribution of liquefied gas in Santiago de Cuba and the eastern provinces.
In April, more than 834,000 of the 1.7 million registered customers were unable to purchase the product from any state distribution.
Coal, which has become the last available resource, is also not within everyone's reach. A bag can cost almost half of a monthly salary of a professional, ranging from 3,200 to 5,000 pesos in various provinces, in a country where the average salary is around 6,930 pesos and a newly graduated doctor earns just 5,060.
The paradox is striking. Cuba exported charcoal worth 61.8 million dollars in 2023, ranking as the ninth largest exporter in the world, while its population lacks fuel for cooking.
In Las Tunas, local production reached 732 tons by May of this year, more than triple the target, but it still falls short of meeting the actual demand in the province.
The "energy revolution" that Romero questioned was launched by the dictator Fidel Castro (1926-2016) in 2005. The program distributed more than 3.1 million electric stoves and multi-purpose pots with the goal of replacing kerosene and gas with electricity.
On January 17, 2006, while inaugurating the so-called "energy revolution" in Pinar del Río, Castro stated, "I will say only that Pinar del Río will no longer experience blackouts."
Earlier, in January 2003, Abel Prieto, then Minister of Culture of the Cuban regime, promised in front of the cameras of Radio Nederland in Porto Alegre, Brazil, that the blackouts that marked the Special Period would never return to Cuba.
More than two decades later, that promise lies buried under the worst energy crisis in the recent history of the island; the Cuban electro-energy system barely meets a third of the demand exceeding 3,000 MW, with power outages exceeding 24 continuous hours in numerous locations.
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