Cuba is taking measures to deal with a fuel shortage as its largest trading partner, Venezuela, fails to uphold previous agreements. Approaching July and August when demand for energy generally increases, the government has ordered state enterprises to reduce oil consumption and electricity use by 20%.
The expected shortage has resulted in measures to reduce the number of working hours, by stopping work on Saturdays and granting “massive holidays” to workers during the summer months. Oil imports from Venezuela have slowed since late 2015, accompanied by periods of 4-8 hours without electricity.
Cuban power utility, Empresa Electrica, has said that the outages are not the result of an energy crisis but are part of compliance cycles and scheduled repairs. Regardless, the slowdown in trade and accompanying power outages remind many Cubans of a period in the 1990’s, known as the “Special Period”, when the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe left Cuba without the ability to trade for many goods. The worsening political situation in Venezuela has led to defaults and adjustments in trade agreements between the two countries, and could have a negative impact on the economic landscape of the island.
