Havana (AFP) - The fuel crisis that is worsening in Cuba left Eduardo Romano no other "alternative" than to sell his old car from the 1950s to buy an electric tricycle and continue working as a taxi driver.

First modification: 02/18/2026 - 05:03 Last modification: 02/18/2026 - 18:33

"Due to the issue of gasoline and oil, we have had to take this alternative, look for a tricycle," this father of two girls tells AFP while waiting for clients in a park in the municipality of Centro Habana, one of the most populous in the capital.

Cuba faces a very serious energy crisis after the end of oil supplies from Venezuela after the fall of Nicolás Maduro and in the face of Washington's threats to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to the island.

Faced with this situation, the communist government has applied since Monday a package of emergency measures that restricts the sale of fuel (it rationalized gasoline sales and stopped oil sales) and reduced public transportation, an activity that was already very depressed due to the impact of the economic crisis.

As the days go by, the number of private taxis circulating in the capital has also been reduced and the cost of the service has tripled, due to the rise in the price of gasoline, which is now priced at five dollars per liter on the black market.

"It's a difficult situation for people," says Romano, who charges 200 pesos (0.40 cents) for the same stretch that a private taxi would charge triple the value.

With no other alternatives for mobility, electric tricycles, with capacity for between six and eight passengers, have become a lifeline for most Cubans.

On the island the average salary is 6,680 pesos (13.6 dollars).

"Right now tricycles are the kings of the road," Romano says jokingly.

However, although he no longer depends on fuel, he does have to overcome frequent and prolonged blackouts to charge his new means of work. "I live in an area where the current is knocked down" and "you have to play with that," he explains.

"Atomic" demand

"There are people who have had to leave work because they can't afford it" to get around, says Ignacio Charón, 48, an employee at a workshop where tires are repaired.

Right next to the workshop there is a pedicab parking lot, another means of transportation that has become very popular on the streets of Havana and other cities in the country.

Even some of their owners have rushed to install electric motors in their "cars", as they usually call them.

"All (taxis) that are fuel-powered are going to the ground right now" and "rickshaws and electric tricycles are the transportation that will be available in Cuba," predicts Charón, all tarnished by the work with tires.

The man also explains that many people have come to the workshop in recent weeks to prepare the bicycles that they had stored for years in their homes.

Orlando Palomino, owner of a pedicab confirms it. "There is work from Monday to Monday," says the 44-year-old man, who pedals up to 70 kilometers every day transporting people between neighboring municipalities.

The handcrafted pedicabs currently sell for up to 200,000 pesos ($400), according to owners of these vehicles.

"We give an alternative," but "we know it is not much," says Ariel Estrada, driver of these vehicles that support transportation in Havana.

Estrada assures that during the last week the demand has been "atomic" and that the electric tricycles that offer the service cannot cope.

© 2026 AFP

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