Havana faces severe shortages of food and internet connectivity

Residents in Havana are struggling with critical shortages of both essential goods and digital connectivity. In neighborhoods like Nuevo Vedado, mobile data has become an intermittent luxury, forcing people to gather near telecommunications towers in an attempt to access the internet to communicate with family or manage documents.

Simultaneously, retail stability is collapsing. The supermarket at 3rd and 70th Street in the Playa municipality, once a symbol of state-led dollarization with high-end imported goods, is now characterized by empty refrigerators. While water bottles remain on shelves to mask the lack of variety, essential items such as meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, and beer are largely unavailable. This scarcity has directly impacted local workers, such as electric tricycle drivers, who report a significant decline in customers due to the lack of available merchandise.