In December 2024, lines for gasoline and diesel appeared seemingly endless at Havana filling stations. Many stations had been closed for days. Motorist Armando Corrales said he had waited three days for a fuel truck to arrive, while some people slept in the line to keep their places. Even stations selling far more expensive fuel for dollars had queues described as miles long.
A government application recording station deliveries showed that only a trickle had reached Havana since midweek. Venezuelan crude and fuel shipments had fallen 44 percent from January through November, and crude from Mexico still had to pass through Cuba's ageing refineries. The shortage followed three nationwide blackouts in two months.
Reaching the pump did not guarantee that fuel existed. The parked order was both a purchasing queue and a street-level inventory of shortages in electricity, imports and refining capacity.