Fuel shortages and lack of maintenance have taken a toll on public transportation in Cuba, which registered a decline in passengers of nearly 20% in 2023 in comparison to 2022. A drastic drop the Cuban regime promptly blames on U.S. sanctions. However, transportation for cash-carrying foreign tourists, who stay in state-owned resorts and enjoy lavish buffets and air-conditioned tour buses, has spiked by over 60% in the same time period. While Cubans take the brunt of the corruption and mismanagement of the communist Castro dictatorship, things only get better for foreign tourists. This is socialism in action.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
Government says U.S. embargo is affecting public transportation in Cuba, but tourist transportation grew by 62.1%
The number of passengers on public buses in Cuba fell by 17.6% in 2023 compared to the previous year, while the number of travelers on state-owned tourist transport surged by 62.1%, according to official figures released this Thursday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
Cuban Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez, acknowledged this Thursday that the state-run transportation sector is going through one of its “worst moments in recent years” and the country lacks the necessary income and fuel to stabilize it. Public passenger service in Cuba currently transports less than 50% of the travelers it did five years ago, he added.
In total, trips on public buses decreased from 390.2 million in 2022 to 321.6 million one year later, while tourism-related trips, in that same comparison, increased from 13.3 to 21.6 million.
Meanwhile, Miguel Diaz-Canel attributed the transportation problem in Cuba to the misuse of transportation worldwide and the effects of the embargo. “Increasing the resilience of global transport will allow developing countries to adapt to changing global circumstances and new challenges,” he expressed in the propagandistic space “From the Presidency.”
On the other hand, due to the lack of public transportation alternatives, the ONEI reported a 42.2% annual increase in the number of taxi passengers.
In March, Yunier de la Rosa Hernández, General Director of Transportation in Havana, reported that more than half of the buses that should be operating daily in Havana are not in service. According to the official, the Provincial Transport Company of the capital has 309 out of the 561 units that should be providing services paralyzed; that is, only 252 buses are available. In the 1980s, the city had up to 2,500 buses. Just four years ago, it had 600.
I increasingly suspect that the regime wants to maximize its profits as long as it can so that, when things finally crash and burn, those in power will have as much as possible in property and money waiting for them outside Cuba, so they can leave the disaster behind for others to deal with.
Asombra, you are right to an extent, however, let me add, the regime is also, counting on the US’s continual valve release help. They know that if the US continues to allow the discontented to come to the US as it has allowed in virtually every administration, nothing is ever going to change there. Plus, the New Man likes la gosadera and there is no solid organized resistance. Cubans are not Czechs or Poles, our church is compromised and there are too many Cubanoids in the US willing to go back to Cuba to bring $$$ to the regime at ever turn.
They feel pretty secure. The regime knows that it can treat Cubans like pure trash and other than little flare ups, there won’t be any monumental regime changing protests.
You are right on target. 100% correct