Cubans are facing worsening disruptions to basic services as prolonged blackouts increasingly intersect with shortages of water, medicine and food, rising prices and limited public transportation across the island.
"We're struggling in almost every way: with hygiene, with prices," Francisco López, an 80-year-old Havana resident, told EFE. His monthly pension of 4,000 pesos is not enough to buy a bottle of cooking oil, which can cost as much as 5,000 pesos in some private stores. Medication he needs for high blood pressure is no longer available at state pharmacies, he said.
