Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro’s revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist
Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro’s revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist cracks are appearing in Cuba’s communist energy sector.
Under Washington’s crippling oil embargo against Cuba, an exception that allows U.S. firms to export fuel to private Cuban businesses has kickstarted a chaotic black market and pried the lid off an energy sector tightly controlled by the state ever since Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House.
Oil shipments from Cuba’s traditional suppliers Venezuela and Mexico ended abruptly after the U.S. ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. U.S. Coast Guard cutters patrol the waters off Cuba, while sanctions and threats have dissuaded tankers from even setting sail.
The embargo has hobbled essential state-run services like the healthcare system, public transport and schools. But under the Commerce Department exception, a trickle of gasoline and diesel is reaching private restaurants, retailers and taxis, the first significant landings of U.S. fuel on the Caribbean island since Castro nationalized refineries after the 1959 revolution.
Reuters could not determine which U.S. companies are shipping fuel to Cuba, but there is no sign major
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