The lack of fuel is forcing Correos de Sancti Spíritus to resort even to medical transport and school buses to distribute the printed press, amid difficulties that are causing delays of one or several days in the arrival of newspapers to readers.
A broadcaster from Sancti Spíritus reported this Thursday that Correos is experiencing irregularities in distribution due to a shortage of fuel needed to collect the press at the Poligráfico de Santa Clara and transport it to the province afterwards.
Yoelvis Espinosa Cabrera, deputy director of Correos in Sancti Spíritus, explained that the company is assigned to collect the newspapers every Tuesday in Santa Clara.
Once they arrive in the territory of Sancti Spíritus, the entity needs to rely on resources belonging to other organizations to transport them to the different municipalities.
"To distribute it across the municipalities, they rely on other companies," the broadcaster later specified in another post regarding the operation of the service.
Espinosa detailed that among the means used are school transport buses, other available vehicles, and even medical cars.
Once the copies arrive at each municipality, the usual distribution begins through the postal workers from the various units.
The main problem arises when there is no fuel to make the trip to Santa Clara.
In those cases, the collection must be postponed, and the press may arrive one or two days late.
The executive even acknowledged that there have been occasions when the newspapers do not arrive for the entire week and remain pending until the next, although he assured that this is not usual.
"That case has occurred, but it's not common. The usual situation is that if there is a delay, it doesn’t extend beyond a few days: Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, is what usually happens. But yes, it has happened, very rarely," he explained.
The difficulties in transporting newspapers arise after this year's resource crisis forced a drastic reduction in the printing and circulation of the written press in Cuba.
Since March 2, Granma and Juventud Rebelde have been printed only once a week, on Tuesdays and with eight pages, while provincial newspapers have ceased to circulate in print format.
Among the causes mentioned at that time were the lack of paper, fuel, and financial resources, but the problem goes deeper: the Cuban printing industry is facing a structural crisis, characterized by shortages of supplies, technological deterioration, and financial limitations that the authorities have been unable to overcome.
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