Acute shortages of cooking oil have triggered chaotic street scenes and police intervention across Cuban cities as authorities enforce aggressive new price controls and profit caps. The restrictive measures, introduced to curb inflation, have largely driven basic goods out of state shops and pushed the informal market underground.
Sancti Spíritus and Holguín Confront Shifting Markets and Police Interventions
Cooking oil has become exceedingly difficult to acquire across multiple Cuban provinces, sparking intense crowds at the few retail locations offering stock. In Sancti Spíritus, chaotic scenes erupted over two consecutive days at local state-run stores. Witnesses reported physical altercations outside the La Época store when oil was put on sale, with one witness stating that people got into physical fights. On the following Saturday, police forces had to be deployed to manage long queues at the Perla de Cuba establishment, which belongs to the Caribe corporation integrated in the military conglomerate Gaesa.
Shoppers faced strict limits of two botellas per person, priced at 2.85 dollars per liter, payable via cash or a Clásica card. A multitude of people gathered in two lines on either side of the entrance while two agents granted passage inside. Many who waited hours under harsh sun conditions left empty-handed, with an elderly woman recounting a tremendo trabajo para marcar turno
and ultimately leaving after two hours and a half of waiting. Another young person complained about people cutting the line, noting that people suddenly show up with three other people and cut ahead, that they had been standing in the sun for hours and were tremendously hungry, and that they were going home. Another individual exclaimed that this country is garbage, before riding off on an electric motorcycle, while a retired man responded with a public speech about past and present hardships, saying that that was the way it was but it was nothing new, that the country had always been the same no matter what people said, and that people claimed they lived better when the Soviet Union was around, but they did not live any better at all because there was also scarcity and it was garbage, and they were maintained.
Meanwhile, in Holguín, inspectors carried out sudden enforcement actions on Saturday at a market in the Correo del Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood, forcing a “venta forzosa” of oil at 2.200 pesos per liter. A private merchant recounted to 14ymedio that the inspectors showed up without warning and caught everything in full swing, with people selling bottles on the black market and detailed that authorities are conducting major crackdowns across various areas of Holguín.
Economic Controls Roll Back Recent Reforms
The new surveillance, established in the last two weeks to put the brakes on inflation for basic goods like oil and eggs, has resulted in higher prices in the informal market or the direct disappearance of products from establishments. A resident of the Luyanó neighborhood in Havana asserted that not even a single egg could be found in that city, nor could any oil, while a resident from El Vedado stated that they had just managed to get a bottle of Brazilian oil for 4,500 and it was hidden as if it were drugs. Since August 11, various provinces have implemented restrictive measures such as setting a maximum limit of 30 percent benefits for private commerce alongside an increase in inspections and fines for non-compliance, representing a flagrant regression regarding economic liberalization reforms previously announced by the government.
Public Safety Alerts Follow Market Disappearances
Worse still is the sale of adulterated oil, highlighted by an alert issued on Saturday by the Dirección General de Salud Pública de Mayabeque. A post shared via official media informed the public that they must not consume any oil sold at the Rodeo Fairgrounds in the provincial capital, since it was determined after tests were conducted that it is raw vegetable oil intended for animal consumption and not for humans. Local residents recounted offers of this dark oil, with a Mayabeque woman noting that it was supposed to be for eating, but it was dark and thick, and another adding that she was out of her mind if she bought that, preferring to boil everything with water beforehand.
An anonymous resident, via 14ymedio, recounted that people suddenly show up with three other people and cut ahead, that they had been standing in the sun for hours and were tremendously hungry, and that they were going home.
Diplomatic Friction and Sanctions Compound Domestic Pressures
The internal economic strain unfolds against a backdrop of severe international pressure. During an interview this week with The Associated Press in New York, Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations Ernesto Soberón Guzmán directed questions to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking why he was afraid, adding that if he was so convinced that the Cuban government was incompetent, why he needed to implement new sanctions almost every two weeks. The U.S. State Department responded with a quote from Rubio stating that new sanctions will continue to be announced every couple of weeks to close off the escape valves that they are trying to create in every mechanism, and the U.S. subsequently imposed more economic penalties targeting state-owned mining, metal, and construction companies.
Guzmán stated that the sanctions are the main obstacle to Cuba opening up its economy, noting that the impact of U.S. measures—specifically electricity shortages and lack of fuel—has deterred investors and tourists. Spanish hotel chain Meliá pulled out of the country, citing significant operational, legal, economic, and financial difficulties. William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and an expert on U.S.-Cuba relations, stated that literally, the United States has done everything imaginable to try to prevent foreign investors, adding that U.S. policy aims not just to open up Cuba economically but to overthrow the Cuban government—to change the nature of the Cuban political system. John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, noted that following the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, the result is that the Cuban government made more commercial, economic, and financial changes to the country in the last eight months than they have as a group since the revolution.
