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Farmworkers travel in an ox-drawn cart in Minas, Havana province, Cuba, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n
Luis Enrique Aguiar walks home with his oxen in Minas, Havana province, Cuba, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n
Farmworkers travel in a tractor in Minas, Havana province, Cuba, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n
Raydel Rodriguez repairs the fencing on the land where his cattle graze in Minas, Havana province, Cuba, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n
A man carries a crate of bananas in Minas, Havana province, Cuba, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n
LAS MINAS, Cuba (AP) \u2014 Eduardo Obiols Sobredo struggles to feed Cubans young and old, a task even harder now because of a U.S. energy blockade that has caused sweeping water and power outages along with severe gas shortages.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like crying,\u201d the 58-year-old farmer said. \u201cIt\u2019s so sad to see crops grown with so much effort go to waste, especially when you know there are so many who need them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Farming equipment is falling silent across Cuba, with no fuel to power it. Farmers like Obiols Sobredo are turning to animal and manual labor, but not everyone can afford it, and resources are limited.<\/p>\n
As a result, poverty is deepening and hunger is increasing across Cuba, a country of nearly 10 million people. The quality and quantity of fruit and vegetables is diminishing, and prices are surging even further beyond the means of many across the island nation.<\/p>\n
While the Iran war pinches energy supplies around the world, Cuba is the rare place blaming the Trump administration’s targeted actions instead.<\/p>\n
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A spiraling crisis affects Cuba’s most vulnerable<\/p>\n
Cuba spent three months without a fuel shipment after the U.S. attacked Venezuela, a key supplier, and threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.<\/p>\n
The island was already suffocating under a sharp increase in longtime U.S. sanctions, which prevent it from importing certain goods. The Trump administration demands that Cuba’s socialist government release political prisoners, implement major economic reforms and change its way of governance to avoid becoming a national security threat. Cuba has repeatedly said it poses no threat to the U.S.<\/p>\n
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As tensions remain high, top-ranking officials are visiting farmers across Cuba, urging them to step up production so the country can be even more self-sufficient.<\/p>\n
But the effects of the U.S. energy blockade are stark in the town of Las Minas, which has 65 farmers and only 18 oxen.<\/p>\n
Obiols Sobredo rents the animals and their handlers when they’re available, but he relies on manual labor for smaller jobs on his farm. He grows tomatoes, sorghum, cassava and other crops. He also raises goats, whose milk is served at schools.<\/p>\n
He and others farmers are part of a network that supports Cuba’s most vulnerable, including people in orphanages and nursing homes.<\/p>\n
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Clearing his land once took 15 minutes with farm equipment. It now takes at least three days. January was the last time he received the usual monthly supply of gasoline from the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has forced us to take other kinds of actions in order to survive,\u201d Obiols Sobredo said.<\/p>\n
The lack of petroleum also means the delivery truck doesn\u2019t always arrive, forcing farmers to use what little gas they have to transport milk to a location where they freeze it, in the hope it won’t spoil before being picked up.<\/p>\n
Power outages also prevent Obiols Sobredo from grinding food for his goats, which produce less milk because of insufficient nutrition.<\/p>\n
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He also can\u2019t water his crops enough. A nonprofit last year financed a solar irrigation system for his farm, but he needs gasoline to set it up. He relies on rain that hasn\u2019t fallen in nearly two months.<\/p>\n
\u2018They know things are bad\u2019<\/p>\n
Suppliers are relying more often on horse-drawn carts to transport produce, which becomes bruised during long trips to markets.<\/p>\n
At a state market in Havana, where prices are relatively lower, 68-year-old shopper Juan L\u00e1zaro lamented the state of some fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n
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\u201cLook,\u201d he said, pointing to a pile of small, greenish tomatoes. \u201cThey\u2019re lacking fertilizer, you can tell they\u2019re lacking water. Look at their color.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u00e1zaro is a retired industrial mechanic but was forced to start working at a small convenience store to make ends meet. On a recent afternoon, he bought six potatoes as a rare treat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had to cut back. I either buy bread or I buy potatoes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that Cuba\u2019s current crises are much worse than the so-called \u201cSpecial Period\u201d in the 1990s, when cuts in aid following the dismantling of the Soviet Union sparked deprivation. \u201cWe\u2019ve been hitting rock bottom for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Another shopper, 64-year-old Griselle Guillot, now wavers about buying rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to see how much I can buy, because I also need onions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Anthony Batista Guerra, a 47-year-old produce vendor, said there\u2019s no need to explain the change in quality and supply to customers: \u201cThey know things are bad right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the state market began to close, one vendor threw a tomato into the gutter. Shoppers had found it unfit to buy.<\/p>\n
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\u2018My goal is to survive\u2019<\/p>\n
On a humid morning, 82-year-old Argelio Gonz\u00e1lez Juvier used a hoe to fight weeds around cassava plants on the farm where he works.<\/p>\n
An official with Cuba\u2019s interior ministry who retired in 1995, he now has been forced to work again to boost his income and chose farming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe earth provides everything. That\u2019s what we should focus on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have no other alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He criticized the U.S. energy blockade, calling it a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cCuba doesn\u2019t deserve what they\u2019re doing to us,” he said. “The Americans think they\u2019re the owners of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working alongside Gonz\u00e1lez Juvier was 36-year-old Jordanis R\u00edos. He used to be a truck driver hauling sand, gravel and stone, but the lack of gasoline left him without a job.<\/p>\n
He now wields a machete to clear farmland, hacking at yellowing grass every morning for $4 a day. He longs to return to his truck.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy job is there. Just waiting for the country to improve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
R\u00edos did not want to speculate about recent talks between the U.S. and Cuba, with American diplomats flying to the island earlier this month for the first time since 2016. Details remain secret, although Cuba has said its priority is for the U.S. to lift the blockade.<\/p>\n
R\u00edos said it’s all in the hands of officials: \u201cMy goal is to survive here and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
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