Havana
Fuel crisis: Drivers in Cuba waited in snaking lines at gas stations for days this week as a fuel shortage paralyzed much of the Communist-run island. “I’ve been three days waiting in this line,” said private taxi driver Alexander Pérez, 43. Some drivers parked their cars in “ghost queues” near bone-dry gas pumps, with no idea when the station would get more fuel.
The shortage comes after months of blackouts blamed on the crumbling power grid. The poor state of Havana’s public transport system added to the problems, with half the city’s 878 buses out of service due to a lack of parts. One young man told Spain’s El País newspaper that Cubans are getting tired of one shortage after another. “If it’s not gasoline, it’s a blackout,” he said, “and then chicken will be lacking.”