Cuba is deploying oxen to replace tractors, using wood instead of gas at many st...
HAVANA - Cuba is deploying oxen to replace tractors, using wood instead of gas at many state bakeries and advising citizens to save electricity by making the most of daylight as it grapples with an acute fuel shortage amid U.S. sanctions.
Some cement factories have decreased production, the construction minister told a state broadcaster this week. A large steel factory in Havana has stopped operating altogether, a worker there told Reuters. “If they don’t need me right now, then I’d far rather not have to fight to catch a ride from a bus stop overflowing with people, especially given this heat,” said Rosario, 32, who said her employer had sent her home with her full salary.Some state workplaces, universities and schools have simply cut hours to save electricity and provide some relief to public transport at peak commuting hours.
Pavel Vidal, a former Cuban central bank economist who teaches at Colombia’s Universidad Javeriana Cali, said a rare advantage of a centrally planned economy like Cuba’s is that it enables the government to “orientate what little resources it has to the country’s essential priorities” in a crisis.Many Cubans fear the government is bracing for the economic situation to remain dire or worsen.
Queues at gas stations in Havana snake for blocks, with some Cubans even sleeping in their cars overnight to have a chance of filling up.
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