A resident of the Isle of Youth described this Friday on Facebook how, despite working seven days a week, she has to cook with charcoal and faces difficulties in accessing food and basic services.
Idaneris Aguirre published a text in which she expressed the physical and emotional exhaustion that living under such conditions causes her. "I never imagined that the future would find me cooking with coal, as if I were in a century I didn't get to live through. But here I am, at this stage of life, with a knot in my throat so permanent that I almost confuse it with my own voice," she wrote.
His account also captured the consequences of the lack of electricity on domestic life, the disappearance of medications that used to be part of the routine, and the insecurity that, as he describes, affects everyday activities such as sitting in a park.
To this scenario is added the loss of family and friends who emigrate or pass away. "I am losing people like one loses coins in a broken pocket," Aguirre wrote, before summarizing his situation with a question: "I don't know if this is living or just surviving."
Aguirre closed his publication with a question that many Cubans feel remains unanswered: "How long?"
The responses to the post reflected similar experiences. One person living abroad described the situation on the island as particularly difficult due to isolation, maritime transport breakdowns, and rising prices of goods. Another questioned the gap between political rhetoric and the living conditions of the population: "None of those who preach communism cook with coal."
A third person made a distinction regarding the use of that fuel: "Cooking with charcoal isn't bad; camping and cooking with charcoal is acceptable. The problem arises when it's the only option for daily use and in critical conditions."
The Island of Youth is experiencing a crisis exacerbated by communication difficulties with the rest of the country. The ferry Perseverancia has been out of service for several days due to a malfunction in the port side main engine, and there is still no repair date available. A smaller capacity catamaran has temporarily taken over passenger transport, with restrictions on luggage.
The energy crisis has also hit the territory hard. In July, residents reported having barely two hours of electricity per day, and in August, the service was practically suspended across the entire island, with supply reserved for the hospital and water pumping. Effective generation capacity fell to 18 megawatts compared to the 48 installed.
Precarity extends to food. In July, a report from a resident in that area indicated that a package of chicken rose from 3,130 pesos to over 7,000 in just a few days, a liter of oil reached 6,000 pesos in the informal market, and bread cost 110 pesos per unit. The average state salary, at around 6,930 pesos per month, is insufficient to cope with these prices.
Weeks later, the Pinero government imposed new maximum retail prices for food and basic goods, including chicken, rice, sugar, beans, oil, eggs, and powdered milk, in an effort to curb the rising prices affecting consumers.
The testimony coincides with the data from the IX Report of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, which states that 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty. The study, based on more than 1,300 interviews across 79 municipalities, also indicates that eight out of ten respondents missed breakfast, lunch, or dinner at least once in the previous six months due to a lack of money or food.
This scenario is compounded by the forecast from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), which projects a contraction of the Cuban gross domestic product by 10.3% in 2026, the worst in Latin America.
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