The economic siege has exacerbated financial limitations and access to credit to repair the country’s thermoelectric plants, acquire technology, and acquire the fuel needed for strategic sectors of the national economy.
Author: Carmen Maturell Senon | internet@granma.cu
October 23, 2025
“I imagine a very prosperous country, where we can develop and where all young people aspire to pursue their life plans,” she states without hesitation when asked what a Cuba without a blockade would be like. She then breaks the thread of the conversation and exemplifies why this cruel, extraterritorial, and economically suffocating policy “affects the people the most.”
Dayana Beyra Fernández, director of the Petroleum Engineering and Projects Company’s core business unit, sits in a modest office. Behind her is a tabletop bust of Martí, two Cuban flags, a portrait of Fidel, and another of Che Guevara. She says, “Until one experiences the reality of the blockade imposed by the United States firsthand, one doesn’t fully understand the true extent of this inhumane policy,” because “what a cruel way to attack a people!”
The first time Dayana was involved in unloading a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ship, the gas could not be passed through the pipelines from the Ñico López Refinery dock to the joint venture that receives and packages it in small cylinders because those pipelines crossed the land of the former Esso Standard, nationalized by the Revolutionary Government and considered by the United States to be in litigation.
Although this claim is illegitimate, if the company agreed to unload the gas using those lines, it could expose itself to sanctions from the White House.
But the gas had to be unloaded, and so, “we had to invest in an exclusive and expensive line for LPG, which didn’t pass through that land, so that the company would agree to operate the ship.”
That was when she saw for the first time that “the blockade is a very serious matter,” because foreign companies are afraid of being sanctioned.
Years later, when she worked as a process technologist at the Catalytic Cracking plant, the only one of its kind in Cuba, which supplied most of the liquefied gas needed by Havana and part of the western part of the country, she witnessed another prohibition:
“The Brazilians who sold us the catalyst suddenly closed the contract because an American company had bought 50% of the factory’s shares.”
She recalls that they had to “race” to find a similar catalyst: a selective one that would allow fuels like gasoline and LPG to be obtained from a lower-value product.
And the effort, to avoid creating a production gap at the plant, was enormous.
***
Blackouts, transportation, fuel… quality of life. Dayana speaks volumes about everything that plagues Cubans.
She takes advantage of the situation to say that every day she encounters cases in which foreign technicians arrive in the country to implement necessary technologies for thermoelectric plants, but they leave “as soon as they step foot in the Cuban airport,” pressured by restrictions imposed from abroad.
Furthermore, she comments, “there is denial of credit or access to spare parts, even if we have the money, because they contain American components. That’s why it has been very difficult to keep the thermoelectric plants running.”
She also mentions that she has colleagues who have been directly sanctioned for having the audacity to run foreign trade companies in charge of transporting fuel to Cuba. “And yet, they, with great courage, continue to seek alternatives and work for the Cuban state-owned enterprise.”
This siege, which exacerbates financial limitations, can be illustrated by a simple example: the economic transactions that have been returned to the island’s banks, as if Cuban money were worthless.
“What means are we going to use to get the money to the supplier?” Dayana asks, knowing that this is one of the mysteries for any Cuban.
Life, she continues, becomes much more expensive when we have to make multiple exchange rate conversions to acquire a necessary product, “and that could be solved by buying directly from a supplier.”
Dayana, who is also a deputy in the National Assembly of People’s Power for the capital’s Regla municipality, maintains her same tenacity as always: the same tenacity she demonstrates every time she defends Cuba and the oil sector.
For her, the Cuban Petroleum Union (CUPET) is constantly circumventing the blockade, because otherwise, “we wouldn’t be able to bring fuel into the nation. It’s becoming too difficult. Therefore, we must continue uniting people and countries that support the just cause of ending this hostile U.S. policy.”
Dayana, who is also a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power for the capital’s Regla municipality, maintains her same tenacity as always: the same tenacity she demonstrates every time she defends Cuba and the oil sector.
For her, the Cuba Petroleum Union (CUPET) is constantly circumventing the blockade, because otherwise, “we wouldn’t be able to bring fuel to the nation. It’s becoming too difficult. That’s why we must continue uniting people and countries that support the just cause of ending this hostile US policy.”
“And if we’ve managed to survive these difficulties we face, with this economic and financial siege, what would we be like without the blockade?”
“I believe we could have the prosperous country we owe to the people. A Cuba without a blockade would be the one we desire: with superior living conditions, with the Revolution’s programs at their best, with happier children…”
The crackdown on fuel shipments to Cuba, including shipping companies, insurers, reinsurers, banks, individuals, and governments, has reduced the portfolio of foreign suppliers; those that remain have significantly increased prices based on country risk.
AT THERMOELECTRIC PLANTS
Since January 10, 2024, the Ernesto Guevara Thermoelectric Plant (CTE) has not received spare parts for its pumps because the Italian supplier, C.R. Technology Systems, was acquired by Trillium Flow Technologies, which manages purchases from the U.S. The lack of OFAC authorization for legal permits resulted in the contract being unfulfilled.
The Ernesto Guevara, 10 de Octubre, and Máximo Gómez thermal power plants use Voith electrohydraulic actuators in their modernized turbines. Regular suppliers, such as Real Control and Energo Control, have reported that, due to the Helms-Burton Act, they cannot sell this equipment to Cuba.
Taichi HD Cuba was asked to supply a new VCS-6000 AVR excitation system for the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Power Plant. It responded that Mitsubishi Generator Corp. was the appropriate company to handle the project. However, it was unable to submit a quote due to strict U.S. sanctions, and this cannot be amended.
IMAGE CREDIT: The crackdown on fuel shipments to Cuba has reduced the portfolio of foreign suppliers. Photo: Cartoon by Lema
[ SOURCE: GRANMA ]
