The US energy blockade on Cuba pulls the plug on Havana’s legendary
nightlife
[April 20, 2026] By
ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) — Havana's broad avenues are empty at night. Theaters are
closed. Bars and cafes have curtains lowered. It’s hard to find lights
in the streets or Cubans making money entertaining tourists.
Under the weight of an oil embargo imposed by the second administration
of U.S. President Donald Trump, and the island's most severe economic
crisis in decades, the city's once bustling nightlife has gone quiet.
“I feel empty inside when I see my streets empty,” said Yusleydi Blanco,
a 41-year-old accountant. “I can’t be happy when my country is sad.”
‘Worse than the Special Period’
Following a 2016 deal between then-Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl
Castro easing U.S. travel restrictions on Cuba, money flooded the island
as tourism spiked. A small number of entrepreneurs opened newly allowed
private businesses and bought imported modern vehicles that shared the
streets with classic cars from the 1950s.
In 2018, a record 4.7 million tourists arrived on the island. Hotel
accommodations were so saturated that travelers without lodging were
seen sleeping in a park in the small western Cuban town of Viñales that
draws thousands of tourists and rock climbers to its scenic limestone
cliffs.
Today, gasoline sales are limited to 20 liters (5 gallons) per vehicle
and owners can wait months for a turn at the pump. Buses now stop
running at 6 p.m. and international airlines including Air France, Air
Canada and Iberia have stopped flying to Havana because they can’t
refuel there. The sound of cars has disappeared in the wealthy El Vedado
neighborhood, where the soundscape of chirping birds has reemerged.
The Cuban government reported the arrival of 77,600 tourists in
February, down from 178,000 on the same month a year ago.
“This is worse than the Special Period," said 65-year-old parking
attendant Dolores de la Caridad Méndez about the years of economic
devastation that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's Cold
War patron, in the 1990s.
[to top of second column] |
A street musician walks past a restaurant in Havana, Wednesday,
April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
 ‘Testing everyone's stamina'
In contrast with his Democratic predecessors, U.S. President Donald
Trump has tightened economic sanctions against Cuba, demanding an
end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a
liberalization of the island’s ailing economy.
The deepening crisis has led to persistent blackouts, cuts to the
state-run food ration system, and severe shortages of water and
medicine that have transformed daily life into an ordeal for many in
the island of 10 million. Between 2021 and 2024, approximately 1.4
million Cubans left the island — mostly young people but also
accomplished musicians, actors, dancers and other entertainers who
fueled Havana's nightlife.
In January, the U.S. captured then-President Nicolás Maduro of
Venezuela, which had been Cuba's primary supplier of oil. The Trump
administration severed that supply and threatened to impose tariffs
on other countries that sold oil to Cuba, which went without a
single shipment until a Russian tanker came in March.
For entrepreneurs and business owners across the island, life has
become difficult as tourism plummeted and their hopes of selling
cheaper goods to fellow Cubans dashed against the rocks of a vastly
harder economic reality.
“You wake up and you're ready to conquer the world, saying, ‘Today
I’ll sell more than ever,'” said Yeni Pérez, owner of the Old Havana
cafe Entre Nos. “Then not a single client comes in and you go home
devastated.”
“The next day,” she said, “You say, ‘Let’s give it another chance.'
It's a time that's testing everyone's stamina."
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
