Now in Cuba you have to sign up for an app to get gasoline

To avoid chaos outside gas stations, the Cuban regime last week forced drivers to use an application known as Ticket to get appointments to recharge. But drivers in Havana told the AP this Monday that the app is only giving them shifts for several weeks or months.

“I have (the appointment) number seven thousand and something“said Jorge Reyes, a 65-year-old man who downloaded the state app on Monday. Reyes signed up to fill up at a Havana gas station that only allows 50 shifts a day. “When will I be able to buy gasoline again?” he asked.

The app only allows drivers to make an appointment at one location at a time. For this reason, some drivers share information in WhatsApp groups about which places might be less crowded or which gas stations have greater capacity to serve customers, noting that some locations give up to 90 shifts a day. But that is of little consolation to those who have downloaded the app and now discover that they have a queue of ten thousand users ahead.

The Cuban government has also stopped selling gasoline in local currency at subsidized rates of about 25 cents per liter, and now only sells more expensive fuelpriced in US dollars.

A liter currently sells for $1.30 at the stations and can cost up to 6 dollars on the growing black market. Public employees in Cuba earn less than $20 a month, if their income in Cuban pesos is converted to US dollars at the market exchange rate.

When drivers can finally recharge at gas stations, They will only be able to buy 20 liters of gasolineor about 5.2 gallons. “This is not going to last long,” said Ariel Alonso, a businessman who filled up with fuel on Monday at the El Riviera gas station.

“I have to leave a reserve of five liters in case someone gets sick at home” and has to be taken to the hospital, he explained.

The suffering of Cubans due to the shortage of gasoline already leaves dramatic scenes in the streets of Havana. Piles of garbage accumulate in the corners and, as portrayed AP people cover their noses at him rancid smell of the accumulation of waste, one of the many consequences of scarcity.

The Ticket application is operated by XETID, a state-owned software company. Last week, the company’s commercial director Samuel Tejada told the Cuba Debate news site that more than 90,000 drivers had requested shifts through the app.

El Ticket exists for three years and before, Cubans used it to get appointments at notaries and gas stations where they could pay for fuel in local currency. But now it is almost the only way for drivers to charge their cars without having to resort to the black market.

The vehicles used for the tourism sector of the island are lexcept. They have special license plates and can access the gasoline supply at 44 service stations on the island, where long queues form. Like normal cars, tourist cars can only carry 20 liters of fuel.

Fuel shortages and blackouts have intensified in Cuba this month, as the country struggles to import oil for your power plants and refineries.

In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that sold oil to Cuba, as Washington steps up efforts to pressure the island’s communist government to make economic and political reforms.

The president at the head of the regime in Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has declared his willingness to negotiate with the United States “on equal terms” and without giving up the sovereignty of his country. Díaz-Canel has accused the United States of implementing an “energy blockade.”

Venezuelaone of Cuba’s main oil suppliers, stopped selling crude to the island in January after the United States captured then-self-proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro in a predawn military operation and flew him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Mexico also cut shipments of oil to Cuba in January, after Trump launched the tariff threat.

The island’s banks have reduced your working hours to save electricity and, earlier this month, the Cuban government announced that it would not supply fuel to airplanes to land on the island, which caused the cancellation of flights to Cuba by three Canadian airlines. Other airlines will continue to operate flights to the island, but will make stops for gasoline in the Dominican Republic.

A book fair and the annual tobacco fair have also been postponed as officials look for ways to reduce consumption of fuel and electricity.

Last week, a group of United Nations human rights experts condemned the US oil siege, stating that it “has no basis in collective security and constitutes a unilateral act incompatible with international law.” Trump doubled down on his position and called Cuba a “failed nation.”