{"id":293905,"date":"2026-02-16T10:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293905\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:29:10","slug":"ottawans-in-cuba-fly-home-early-as-fuel-shortages-worsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293905\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawans in Cuba fly home early as fuel shortages worsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Major Canadian airlines have suspended flights to Cuba, with some bringing Ottawa-based travellers home early as the island country grapples with an energy crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sending empty planes to bring people back,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez told CBC after his WestJet flight landed at the Ottawa International Airport on Saturday. <\/p>\n

He had planned to stay in Varadero for another week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The federal government updated its travel advisory for Cuba on Wednesday, urging Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to the popular tourist destination as it deals with worsening fuel shortages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of Cuba\u2019s jet fuel comes from Venezuela, but shipments of crude and refined products stopped in mid-December, after the U.S. moved to block the South American country\u2019s exports.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez, who is from Cuba, said he’s concerned about what this will mean for the country’s economy, which relies heavily on its tourism industry. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously they’re gonna be hurt really badly from not getting their usual tourists,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Why Cuba is facing fuel shortages:\"\"<\/p>\n

Why is the U.S. cutting Cuba off from the rest of the world? | About That <\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump is applying severe economic pressure to an already-strained Cuba mired in a food and power crisis. Andrew Chang explains why the U.S. is choosing now to cut off the country’s oil supply, and why, for Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it’s also personal.<\/p>\n

While nothing was \u201cparticularly lacking\u201d at his hotel, Hern\u00e1ndez said locals are struggling to survive as the country deals with food and medicine shortages along with rolling blackouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re definitely concerned. Prices on the streets have gone up quite considerably,\u201d he said, noting the situation is the worst he\u2019s seen in 60 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laurence Dumville, who also returned from Varadero on Saturday,\u00a0had a similar experience to Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

“The hotels are OK. They have standby generators,” he said, adding there were no power outages at his hotel during his stay. <\/p>\n

But Dumville said staff expressed their concerns to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re terrified. They think they’re all going to be laid off,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"SeveralDrivers wait in a long line to enter a gas station near Havana in late January. (Ramon Espinosa\/The Associated Press)’Dark for us for decades’<\/p>\n

Kirenia Carbonell, a member of the Cuban Canadians Coalition, says she’s grateful that tourists are becoming aware of the problems Cubans are facing.<\/p>\n

But she also hopes the attention that’s on Cuba right now isn’t solely focused on the tourism industry. <\/p>\n

“They don’t have enough of anything,” she said. “It has been dark for us for decades, but now because tourism is affected … everybody’s talking about it.”<\/p>\n

Carbonell, who spoke to CBC at a small weekend rally she organized in the Byward Market, explained that shelves at Cuban pharmacies and grocery stores are empty and hospitals lack the resources they need. <\/p>\n

“We are here to let Canadians know that our problem is deeper than some flights being cancelled and some hotels being closed,” she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-293905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}