Yuneisy Riviaux said her days have narrowed to deciding what a family can manage when food runs short, amid a crisis in Cuba that has worsened over the past six years. The 42-year-old, unemployed mother of two lives in Havana in a house with the second floor that collapsed years ago, and she described moments when she has “to bite my lip and swallow my tears because I don’t have lunch for the girls.”
Riviaux’s account came as her husband, Cristóbal Estrada, was out seeking food and cash for relatives and neighbors, leaving their 2-year-old daughter without lunch. She gave the child a piece of bread and provided the last of the family’s milk, which she said was a donation from Mexico, while Riviaux herself went without food and their 7-year-old received a free lunch at school, where classes continued despite the national crisis.
Public transportation has been severely limited because of gasoline shortages, the report said, after the United States imposed an oil embargo on the island. The report said the embargo followed an attack on Venezuela in January, which disrupted shipments to Cuba; Cuba produces about 40% of the crude oil it needs, making it dependent on imports. Officials and experts cited in the report said the shortage of gasoline and basic resources has roiled the country and crippled hospitals, contributing to soaring prices and food shortages.
The report also described recent oil deliveries as only a partial relief. It said that on Tuesday a Russian tanker docked at the Cuban port of Matanzas with 730,000 barrels of oil after the Trump administration let it proceed despite the U.S. energy blockade—marking the first oil delivery in three months. Experts in the report said that would provide enough diesel for about nine or 10 days of the island’s needs, leaving the wider shortages unresolved.
For Riviaux’s family, the crisis has spilled into health and household finances as well as daily meals. The report said Estrada fell ill in February and was hospitalized with a collapsed lung, and it described how the couple struggled to afford treatment after state-subsidized pharmacies lacked medicine, forcing them to buy drugs on the black market. Riviaux said the couple had to sacrifice a small business so they could buy medicine and save his life.
Riviaux, meanwhile, said her work has shifted to selling pastries her sister bakes when they can get flour, instead of the powdered drinks and packaged foods she and her husband sold from a small stall. The report said Cuba’s ration book covers dozens of items, including rice, beans, sugar, cooking oil, coffee and bread rolls, but that rations have not been enough to prevent shortages, with families supplementing purchases in private stores using currency pegged to the U.S. dollar.
The report tied the current situation to broader economic and migration trends. It said stricter U.S. sanctions began under the first Trump administration, while the pandemic and Cuba’s economic policies contributed to a deep recession; it also said Cuba’s gross domestic product has plummeted by 15% over the last six years, triggering an exodus and that the island lost more than 1 million inhabitants—roughly 10% of its population—in 2024 alone.
Cuba’s medical system has also deteriorated as shortages have intensified, the report said. It described hospitals facing a critical backlog, citing local authorities and the United Nations that described about 96,000 surgeries pending, including 11,000 for children, and it said nearly 5 million people with chronic illnesses lacked access to essential medications. It also said treatments such as radiation for cancer and dialysis for kidney disease have been interrupted for 16,000 and 2,800 patients, respectively.
In parallel, the United Nations launched a $94 million emergency plan described in the report as responding to a “life-threatening” crisis. Francisco Pichón, the resident coordinator of the U.N. in Cuba, said the appeal comes after a long history in which Cuba led Latin America in maternal health and vaccination rates—successes he said are now at grave risk.
Riviaux said she tries to avoid politics, but Trump’s rhetoric has unsettled her as she and her husband worry about the future of life on the island. She told the reporter that she and her family heard news that Trump wanted to take over Cuba and asked what could happen if the United States gets involved. Estrada returned with plantains, chicken and enough cash to buy about a kilo (around 2 pounds) of rice from a neighbor’s stall—offering a small relief in a week of uncertainty.