Dozens of people stormed a truck loaded with cooking oil this Friday near the La Lisa Cemetery and the National Highway in Havana, in an incident that was captured in a video shared by journalist Gilberto Dorrego on Facebook.
According to a witness at the scene, the vehicle was being guarded by police officers when what the reporter described as an "avalanche of people" surged toward the truck to seize the oil.
The police presence did not succeed —or did not attempt— to stop the looting, the source assured.
The incident reflects the level of desperation to which the Cuban population has reached due to the scarcity of a product that has practically disappeared from the ration book throughout 2026. The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted in June that the supply booklet had not distributed oil, chicken, or yogurt so far this year.
The situation worsened following the publication of Resolution 150/2026 by the Ministry of Finance and Prices, which removed the price caps on imported cooking oils and repealed the previous limit of 990 pesos per liter.
The result was an uncontrolled escalation of oil prices in Cuba: from around 1,500 pesos per liter in April, the product reached a market price between 4,000 and 7,000 pesos in various provinces in August, figures unattainable for those earning salaries in Cuban pesos.
Due to the inability to access oil, many Cuban families have turned to lard or coconut fat as substitutes, although these products have also started to run low. There are mothers who cook eggs in water due to the lack of oil, an image that encapsulates the extent of the food crisis.
The looting in La Lisa is not an isolated incident. In August 2025, a traffic accident in Bayamo led to a similar episode of collective appropriation of goods with subsequent arrests.
In October of that same year, an attempt to loot a moving truck was reported in Camagüey, and in February 2025, Cuban police were recorded extorting a driver of an agricultural truck in Cerro, Havana, demanding a portion of the goods.
That the police were unable —or unwilling— to control the crowd this Friday in La Lisa highlights something deeper than just a shortage of a product: the erosion of state authority in the face of basic needs that the regime has been unable to meet for years.
Five Cuban provinces were experiencing critical levels of food insecurity in April 2026, according to a report cited at that time, and the situation has only worsened since then.
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